Neighbors and friends remember fiber artist Jean Matzke for her expansive humor, her independence, and her indefatigable support of friends, neighbors and fellow artists.

In a tragic accident last Friday morning, Matzke was struck and killed by a garbage truck as she crossed a downtown St. Paul street, while heading out on her routine constitutional in Mears Park with her boxer, Maya.

I didn't know Jean Matzke personally, but I knew her artwork well. Her richly hued, masterfully fabricated, narrative textile pieces were immediately recognizable for their wit and deft craftsmanship. Matzke's work was awarded a Minnesota Craft Council "Best of Show" award in 2006, and it's included in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. John's University, and the College of St. Benedict. She was, in recent years, also represented by the Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul. (You can see a selection of Matzke's fiber art online here.)

For years and years, Matzke also ran a gallery space of her own in St. Cloud, Gallery 702. A longtime friend from those days, photographer James Dean, remembers, "the way she ran her gallery was heroic: she supported so many artists, had such a wide variety of shows over the years — she gave a lot of people exposure they wouldn't have otherwise had. She made a big difference in the lives of artists around here."

Dean goes on, "Jean lived above the gallery space. She worked on a big loom in her living room, and her door was always open. Whenever I stopped by the gallery, it seemed like there were always two or three visitors already up there, dropping in for a cup or two of coffee. She made her gallery a gathering spot for artists, and people were just drawn naturally to her."

Dean pauses, then says, "She always came back to St. Cloud to get her hair cut, even after she moved to the Cities. She made a point not to lose contact with her old friends; she wasn’t the kind of person who just talked about staying in touch, she came back here all the time to check in." Dean pauses, then laughs, "And she said the person who did her hair was just really that good."

When Matzke moved to the Lowertown Artist Lofts in St. Paul in the early 2000s, Dean says, she was looking to downsize a bit, to find new opportunities to show her work. As she'd been in St. Cloud, Matzke quickly became a mainstay in the tight-knit artist community living near downtown St. Paul.

On Facebook, filmmaker Mike Hazard, another close friend, has collected a number of small, anonymous reflections from her St. Paul cohort of artists, friends, and neighbors. Taken together, these snippets of memory from Matzke's loved ones read a bit like poetry:

"She was a light, like encountering the sun on a sunny day."
"She made a life of her relationships."
"She’d knock on my door every day to make sure I had a smile on my face."
"She was a thread who connected us all."
"She served her art and she served artists."
"An independent person, she was always saying, 'I can do that.'"
"Some man told her 'You have the walk of a beautiful woman.'"
"She knew where she was going."
"She could never say no to anyone."
"She laugh-laughed."
"She found something beautiful in everything."
"Jean has a piece which reads, 'Bad is never good until worse happens.'"

Another of Matzke's close friends and a fellow Mears Park dog-walker, filmmaker Deb Wallwork, has written a lovely tribute to Matzke, which you can read online here. As James Dean said when we finished up our phone call today, "She'll be sorely missed."