Mary Jhun was born in Cavite, Philippines in 1989 and moved to the States in the mid-‘90s. Her struggle with English and making friends as a kid was what pushed her need to draw when she was in elementary school. “I gave a drawing of a bird to a boy when I was eight and he became my friend without me saying a word. That was when I knew I wanted to use art first and foremost as my voice.” 

The girls and beings that constantly carry Jhun’s work throughout the years act as a vase to all her memories and the stories of others. A result of a 15+ years of obsession of coping traumatic experiences, the girls have been the main focus of her documentation of surviving everyday life, past and present. Inter locking our psychology to biology of plants & architecture, Jhun creates stories through our deeper emotions. The girls represent an inner self, one that is culminated of many alternate versions of what is or can be. Most days, Jhun calls them the girls, however, they represent more so a feeling, a timeframe, and a product of a certain reaction.

Mary Jhun is an Autodidact, advocating for self-education. Leaving Art School at the end of her college years, Jhun began her path in becoming a surrealist artist. Jhun is well versed in Surrealist Automatism, a method of art working directly from the subconscious without a planned approach. She refers to her work as “emotional self portraits of a day remembered” for that the method allows the pieces to be thumbprints of haunting memories that delve into the beauty of life, death, and the journey in between. 

Current works are found in Mary Jhun’s studio, which resides in Barrio Logan, the arts and cultural district in San Diego. Her public works are rooted in Barrio Logan and can also be found throughout San Diego, Seattle, and Arizona.