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BIOGRAPHY

Jean Fogelberg

The young artist in Lompoc, Caifornia.

I was born Jean Marie Mayer in St. Albans, New York in 1955. When I was 5 years old my family moved to the coastal town of Lompoc, California. I drew pictures for my elementary school classmates and taught myself to play the guitar at age twelve. Within a few years I was teaching children to play guitar at Camp Cielo art & music camp in Santa Barbara, which led to performing in a 50s tribute band with fellow Cabrillo High School students when I was sixteen.  

 

Enrolled as an art major at Alan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, I attended classes by day and worked as a waitress on the graveyard shift at Denny's Restaurant, where I became friends with the two night cooks, who were both musicians. On the weekends we would sit in with a local nightclub duo then leave to start our shifts at Denny's. One night a band from San Luis Obispo saw me performing with the duo and offered me a job singing with them five nights a week. I left college and Denny's and never looked back.

For the next 25 years I supported myself with my music, performing in California: San Luis Obispo, Shell Beach, Grover City, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, Solvang, and Lake Tahoe. Later, I would play in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and then Santa Fe, New Mexico. I studied acting at the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts and in 1980 I wrote The Temptations' hit song, "Power". In 1985 I started painting and by 1988 I was showing in galleries in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas and Oregon.

Temptations Power

I moved to Santa Fe in 1989 and painted scenes of New Mexico and Native American figures while working at galleries and clothing stores. In 1996, while performing at a small cafe, I met the love of my life, musician Dan Fogelberg. An accomplished fine artist and traditional darkroom photographer himself, Dan shared his knowledge with me and encouraged me to further develop my skills with the camera. He died of advanced prostate cancer in 2007.

Jean Dan Fogelberg

Photo by Henry Diltz

I continued to maintain the danfogelberg.com website we created in 1998, and produced three albums: Love in TimeDan Fogelberg - Live at Carnegie Hall, and A Tribute to Dan Fogelberg. In 2023 I partnered with Iconic Artists Group, created by Dan's old friend, Irving Azoff. They manage the website now, as well as Dan's presence on a myriad of social media platforms, giving me time to pursue my own art, photography, music and writing.

Jean Fogelberg India

At Anjanadri Hill in Hanumanahalli, near Hampi in Karnataka, India

I love teaching and sharing my passion for photography, and I love to travel. My primary "focus" is helping budding photographers to master the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings on their cameras, and guiding them through post-production techniques in Photoshop®. I have taught workshops with Heaven and Earth Workshops in Colorado, Mexico, Bali, England, Ireland, and India. So far.

Jean Fogelberg Selfie in Penzance, England

A selfie shot during a workshop in Penzance, Cornwall England.

jeanfogelberghat.jpg

June 2024 in California

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