The Fountain Hills Artists’ Gallery is pleased to announce the addition of Jean Dibner to its array of fine artists.

Jean is an award-winning sculptor whose work is in many private and public collections and exhibited nationally. Her figurative sculpture, infused with passion and vitality, is a celebration of the indomitable spirit within us all.

Her subjects express a variety of feelings, reflect on current events, or communicate warmth and playfulness. Jean’s commissioned works of children and pets capture not just the likeness of her subjects but their true essence as well.

Once upon a time, Jean Dibner was a senior vice president of Avid Technology, a digital film-editing company. Now she spends her days carving granite and clay as a sculptor-but she’s the first to admit that the transition “didn’t just happen.” She volunteered for early retirement in 1999 thinking that after raising four children and sending them to college and being a major breadwinner.

“It was time to do something that was really energizing for me,” Dibner said.

Still, the change from having profit-and-loss responsibility for $300 million in revenue and 350 employees to waking up each morning and staring at clay in the basement took some getting used to.

“You work so hard to get yourself where you are, and a part of your identity is the title,” Dibner said. “Sometimes I’ll be somewhere now, and somebody will say, ‘What do you do?’ and I’ll say, “I’m a sculptor,’ like they think it’s a hobby, not something meaningful and serious.”

But that is a small price to pay for leading the creative life.

“So many people say, ‘Gee, I’m so envious. I wish I had something like that,’” says Dibner. “But I believe that everybody does have some creative response to life. You just have to figure out what it is.”