Jehan Parker

Mom’s coworkers at the Oxnard Public Library organized a public display of her art. This set of photos taken by my Dad doesn’t get close enough to see the full detail, so I’d encourage you to see them in person. I hear the display will be up throughout the month of November, at the main branch in downtown Oxnard.

(Click for larger, clearer versions on Flickr.)

While she had pieces (like “Gather Ye Rosebuds” hanging here on the wall, at left) shown before, this is the most comprehensive public display of her printmaking work. It highlights some of the themes and techniques of her work, including a good example of her love of monotyping (”Bicycle” in the center of the case), where she’d color an image by hand so that each print in a series was totally unique.

She walked me through her collection of several portfolios full of prints mid last year and talked about some of the works she was still trying to finish. Generally, she was looking forward to working on increasingly large prints, having pretty much mastered the techniques of small formats that lent themselves to her skill at line drawing and sketching (with kids, there was time for nothing else). As she picked printmaking back up over the last 10 years, she was always taking risks, pushing the boundaries of what she could pull off, often turning a single iconic image through a series of varying techniques, compositions, and colors. Some of the stuff I liked the most was the newest, showing so much potential.

Thanks to Yvonne, Dad, and everyone at the Library that made this happen.

Christmas in Oxnard isn’t the same without Mom. The first thing I notice is the lack of decorations. She’d collected or created decorations of various sorts for the all rooms and tended to rotate them so they weren’t the same every year. This year, we’ve been pretty happy even to think about getting the tree up.

She also restarted the stocking tradition a few years ago, so we had various unique, handmade stockings on the fireplace mantel, and she’d find a variety of small, often oddball, gifts to fill them with for Christmas morning. Stacey’s been contributing to the little army of stocking stuffers these last years, so I think she’s picking up the baton and has stuff to fill them with this year. But when once there were different kinds of little objects (mostly useful or edible), part of the fun was figuring out who they were from.

And Mom kind of kept things organized and on track. And there’s always plenty to think about leading up to Christmas, what with gift wrapping, meals, movies, and preparations for the holiday dinners. I miss her and think of her every day–I know many of us do.

But Christmas is still a great time for us all to celebrate family. Christmas in Oxnard has been small this year, since Tabitha and Jeff couldn’t make it out from Austin, but it looks like we will go up to Goleta (near Santa Barbara) on Christmas day to join my father’s eldest sister–and lots and lots of cousins. My contribution will mainly be the wine I brought down from home–including a Quebecois cidre glace (ice cider) for desert.

For Christmas eve, we’re doing something a little different. Since Stacey couldn’t make it back out to Minnnesota this month, we’re bringing a little of Minnesota to Oxnard. She often makes Swedish yellow pea soup during the holidays and always does a bunch of baking, mostly delicious little Scandanavian cookies (spritz and pepparkakor, mainly). This year, we’ll do more of the traditional Swedish dinner, and drove down to Olsen’s Deli in LA yesterday to pick up a bunch of supplies. I know my mother would approve of the adventure–she loved the yellow pea soup, made with the larger, firmer Swedish peas and ham-based stock–even though she’d certainly avoid anything fishy.

Thanks to all those who attended the memorial service yesterday–it was a great turnout. All of us in the family appreciate the show of support and the kind words that were spoken.

We’d also like to thank the Oxnard Public Library staff for providing the refreshments–with a special thanks to Yvonne Harper and Barbara Murray from the library for this and other help this week.

We’ll be posting more Jehan’s art and poetry here on the site, so do check back for updates. I’m also considering creating a printed anthology of my mother’s work.

- Sam

This is a memorial Web site for Jehan Bradford Parker.

Please feel free to leave comments to this post (click on the “Comments »” link). Or email us anything you’d like posted (longer messages, photos, etc).

We’re planning to have an informal memorial service for Jehan at 10am on Friday 11/17. We’ll be holding it at Garcia Mortuary in downtown Oxnard.

The address is:

Garcia Mortuary
629 S A St, Oxnard, CA
(805) 486-9148

Click here for a Google map to the location.

My mother wrote plenty of poetry, starting with posts on The Retreat, a bulletin board. St. Ranger (Jeremiah) and Andy Baio highlighted some of her works there. Selected poems are below:

Read the rest of this entry »

Emailed to us:  

Jehan had a way of touching hearts. She was good friend and I will miss her. My thoughts and prayers to the family. 

I’m sure our Jehan is looking down at us now and saying this to ALL of us… 

Read the rest of this entry »

She and I would giggle about the latest internet video, and by giggle I mean laugh so hard until our stomachs hurt.

She could find joy in any little thing, and I loved sharing that with her.

She had this way of holding something up in front of her and looking at it, her eyes sparkling, as she devised some new way of using it in her art or to decorate the house.

She was one of the kindest people I know, and she helped countless lives (cat or otherwise) find their way back to the right path.

She spoke her mind and never held her opinion back.

She was so talented, and I will continue to adorn my walls with her beautiful works of art.

She was one of the smartest and wisest people I’ve ever met, though she wouldn’t ever say it, and I can only hope to know as much as she did about every little thing.

I loved finding gifts here and there that would bring that wonderful smile to her face.

My mom was my closest friend, and I will miss her dearly.

~Tabi

Some of Jehan’s art from the last year or two:

(Click for a larger, clearer versions on Flickr.)

We’ve posted more of her art here. There’s plenty more to share, and we’ll be adding more to the gallery.

Some photos from this year:

(Click for a larger, clearer versions on Flickr.)

More photos are here and here.