When someone asks Jean Cornwell-Wheat what kind of art she does, she often replies with “name it.”
It wasn’t always this way for Cornwell-Wheat. She’s forthcoming about her struggles with depression over the years, which was often preceded by a tragic event. Born in Harlem, her mother died two days after she was born and her father was fighting overseas in World War II. She was raised by her paternal grandparents and still often refers to them as her “mother and father.”
“I think that was nature’s answer to me as an individual that this was my outlet, that I have an outlet,” says Cornwell-Wheat, who says it wasn’t until 30 years later that she realized just how depressed she had been. In the first 10 years Cornwell-Wheat lived in San Diego, she would occasionally paint, but it wasn’t until she went back to school and got a degree in illustrating with an emphasis on advertising art that she says she began to become creative again. And while the advertising world didn’t suit her, she says the education experience made her want to do it herself and, in 1977, she went back to get a degree in art education and fine arts at San Diego City College.
“I fell in love, that was it. I sold my house in two weeks,” says Cornwell-Wheat, who at that point had lived in National City for over 30 years. “The kids here were great. I just picked up on their vibe, the energy; they just filled in that empty love for me. I don’t think I realized it at the time that I needed that, but coming here at that time, it just felt good.”