D. Jean Hester is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in Art and Integrated Media from CalArts, and a BFA in Cinema from University of Southern California. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibits, festivals, and screenings in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Her practice in installation, drawing, video, and performance explores a deep interest in communication, interaction and language. She is particularly intrigued by the simultaneous frailty of language and our repeated efforts to connect despite language's inefficiency and tendency toward failure. She finds this duality of human experience particularly intriguing - how we continually attempt to communicate, how we insistently seek connection, despite the fact that as often as not our attempts result in failure or misinterpretation.

Since 1996 she has worked as a Web Programmer and Web Designer. During the dotcom boom days she was a Web Consultant and Team Lead on numerous high-profile commercial web projects for clients such as Toyota and Lexus. She has also been a Web Developer and Lead on internal projects at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Currently she teaches web design and new media full-time, and is the Internet Technology Manager for GYST-Ink, a company that designs software for and provides services to artists.

Please visit Jean's website divestudio.org for an overview of Jean's creative output in art and media.