I’ve always been interested in people. I started reading the New York Times obituaries when I lived in New York City after college and have been a reader of the Times and obituaries ever since. It was a logical progression from the biographies, autobiographies, and letters that have always fascinated me.

I’m just naturally nosy. 

I began reading the Dallas obituaries written by relatives of the deceased or prewritten by the deceased themselves. I love these everyday people who are finally getting their fifteen minutes of fame. They are so human, brave, funny and loving. The pathos is sometimes more than you can bear. 

The young child who “has gone where roses never fade” or the 85 year-old who is known for being the best high school dancer. Even though I’ve always read the obituaries of the high and mighty in the New York Times and the foreign press, I decided to focus on all the people who were never recognized until they died. There is a richness of humanity in this group which touches me.

Jeanne Campbell is one of the original, if not the original painter in the obituarist genre. A life career in creative media, including television, led Jeanne to painting these portraits. Previously selected to speak at the International Conference of Obituarists and with a one woman show at the David Dike Gallery in Dallas under her belt, it is with these paintings that she reveals her unique interest in the dead - beloved as in life but strictly fictional.