photo by Drew Stauss
Statement: TopoQuilts
Quilts often reveal the circumstances of their makers. While quilts can display access to technology, materials, and leisure time, they also can expose extreme resourcefulness and need.
These original quilts, hand sewn by anonymous makers, and discarded to thrift stores, inspire me to consider those with whom I share the city landscape. I layer these original pieces with geographic data, creating a digitally derived stitched drawing of the topography of a specific location. I address my fellow quilters directly by both quilting my interaction (rather than using other media), and connecting formal elements of their work with the geographic locations I am overlaying. I hope for these playful combinations to be slightly more accessible to quilters emphasizing our potentially shared locations and experiences.
Textiles have topography and they naturally lend themselves to work involving landscape. The socioeconomic landscape in Atlanta is changing dramatically and sections of the city shift to include some people and exclude others. Through spoiling these original quilts I preserve them, and my work is a way of feeling connected in a city that does more to separate than connect us.
Statement: Wind Quilts
This work contains maps of wind occurring in the area surrounding Atlanta: the bands of the jet stream, the prediction of wind direction, and a screen capture of a moment of the gusts themselves. Online data visualizations fill in the gaps of numerous wind speed recordings and radar of atmospheric changes. The construction of this work borrows elements from both drawing and quilting, using linear elements traced from a projection and familiar layered and stitched materials. The day and time depicted are chosen randomly and have no particular significance and this weather event, which surrounded me geographically, was barely perceived.
I am interested in the static mapping of dynamic processes, and the futility of capturing something that is in constant change. In much the same way, the memories that I select out of the continuous flow of experience are incomplete moments standing for an uncapturable whole. Festive snippets of ribbon celebrate an intrinsically unremarkable non-event.
Statement: Graffiti Quilts
I form a mental map of new places by remembering recurring marks, textures and patterns: the spray-painted lines describing underground pipes, the repetitive stencils on a wall. These marks act as my guide when my environment is unfamiliar. I remember these interesting visual notes but I then misremember them, mistake them for duplicates, and find they have disappeared. So, the very thing that I use to find my way in a new place also disorients me, and I find uncertainty in the simplest navigations.
By using digitally printed photographs of these marks I create moments of trompe l’oeil, and through layers of collage, printing, and painting on fabric, I layer textures creating a visual uncertainty. This imagery contains information that is both retrieved and created, using both visual and physical texture, like the enjoyable confusion of an image of concrete and the structure of lace. While grounded in reality, it is also unreal; my documentation is neither truth nor fiction because every mark I document disappears like a breadcrumb, having marked my path before being swallowed by the environment.
I am interested in the way that this form of mapmaking has a dual nature in that I feel isolation as well as connection, communication and miscommunication, orientation and disorientation. These sewn structures become an album, an atlas, an emotional archive, simultaneously recording and redefining my thoughts and experiences. For me, feeling lost or knowing exactly where I am can be equally valuable.
BIO
Jess Jones is a textile artist and Assistant Professor of Textiles at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia as well as Affiliate Faculty with the Institute of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She received an MFA in Fibers from East Tennessee State University with an undergraduate background in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking. Jones's work examines psycho-geography, textiles' relationship to the urban environment, and the creation of digitally derived layered and stitched compositions. Her work can currently be seen in Forget Me Not at the Zuckerman Museum of Art.
CV
EDUCATION
MFA, Fibers 2007
Specialized in digital printing, layered and stitched surfaces, bookbinding
East Tennessee State University
Johnson City, TN
BFA, Painting and Drawing 2001
Specialized in collage/mixed media, figure drawing, intaglio printmaking
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2013-present
Assistant Professor and Area Coordinator, Textiles
Affiliate Faculty, Institute of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2011-2013
Visiting Lecturer and Area Coordinator, Textiles
Affiliate Faculty, Institute of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2008-2011
Artist in Residence
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, TN
Assisted in all levels of BFA Textile courses (surface and weaving), purchased and organized all supplies
Participated in all campus events, including outreach programs
Manage studio (purchase all supplies, maintain equipment and looms, stock/store dyes and chemicals, etc.)
Coordinated workshop faculty and supplies, assisted in all workshops involving Textile media/processes
2009-2011
Adjunct Faculty
Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, TN
2006-2008
Adjunct Faculty
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
Northeast State Technical Community College, Blountville, TN
EXHIBITIONS
2018
Jess Jones/ Solo show, Derryberry Gallery, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville TN
2017
Quilt National, Dairy Barn Gallery, Athens, OH
Mixed Use, Swan Coach House, Atlanta, GA (solo show)
New Conversations, Wyche Gallery, Southeastern Community College, Whiteville, NC
2016
Between: Perception in Patchwork Textile Society of America Conference (concurrent exhibition), Savannah, GA (with Sonja Dahl and Rachel Meginnes)
Parallel GSU Welch Gallery, Atlanta GA (two-person)
Retracings Arts Exchange, Atlanta, GA (solo)
Artfields, Lake City, SC
Explorations, Studio Mars, Paducah, KY (solo)
Topo, Berry College, GA
Fiber National 2016, Workhouse Arts Center, Lorton, VA
Subliminal: Hidden Messages, Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, Gape Girardeau, MO
2015
Forget Me Not, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw GA (commissioned work)
Digital Alchemy, International Quilt Market Exhibiton, Houston, TX
Contemporary Women Artists: Reimagining Femmage, Foundry Arts Center, St Louis MO (Lisa Melandri, juror, director of the Contemporary Art Museum of St Louis)
Intertwined, Hudgens Center for the Arts, Duluth GA / Unitarian Universalist, Atlanta GA / Lamar Arts, Valdosta GA / Turner Center for the Arts, Valdosta GA
Continuous Threads: 200 Years of Domestic and Art Textiles in Georgia Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center, Gwinnett, GA
2014
Fiber Options, Circle Gallery, Annapolis MD (Aaron McIntosh, juror)
Parallel Patterns, Sequim Museum and Arts Center, Sequim WA
Cabinets of Curiosity, Muse Gallery Longmont, CO
GSU Faculty Triennial, Welch School Galleries, Atlanta, GA
Continuing Conversations, Invitational, Barton College Art Gallery, Wilson, NC
Digital Technology/ Traditional Techniques, Gray Gallery, East Carolina State University, Greenville NC *award winner
2013
Tex-styles, Southwest Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
Visiting Faculty Exhibition, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
2012
Unsettled, Wonderroot gallery, Atlanta, GA (curator, participant)
Strands, North Bank Gallery, Vancouver, WA
Fibers VI Invitational, Elon University Gallery, Elon NC
2011
Fiber Focus, Innovations in Textiles 9, Art St Louis, St Louis, MO (Lia Cook, juror)
Small Expressions, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
Current Residence, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center Gallery, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
Material Elements, Art St Louis, St Louis, MO
AIR, Appalachian Center for Craft Gallery, Smithville, TN
Visiting Faculty Exhibition, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
Focus on Fibers, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
2010
Art Quilt Elements, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
Quilt National, Ohio Arts Council, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH
Best of Tennessee Craft Biennial, Todd Art Gallery, MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN
Bodily Functions, Mazmanian Gallery, Framingham, MA
ETSU Alumni Exhibition, Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, TN
Master Craft Artist and Apprentice Exhibition, Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville, TN
AIR, Appalachian Center for Craft Gallery, Smithville, TN
Visiting Faculty Exhibition, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
2009
Fiber Focus, Innovations in Textiles 8, Art St Louis, St Louis, MO
Textere, Innovations in Textiles 8, Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery, St Louis, MO
Quilt National, The Dairy Barn, Athens, OH
Art Quilts Lowell, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, MA
More Art, Less Filler II: The Faculty Selects, Space 204, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
National Small Art Quilt Works, Main St Gallery, Groton, NY
AIR, Appalachian Center for Craft Gallery, Smithville, TN
Visiting Faculty Exhibition, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
Highland Rim Chapter Exhibition, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
SDA Members Show, Surface Design Association Conference, Kansas City, MO
Materiality: Fiber Art from the Appalachian Center for Craft, Athens, TN
2008
Clay and Fiber, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL(Dorothy Hughes, Juror)
Art Quilts Lowell, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, MA
National Small Art Quilt Works, Main St Gallery, Groton, NY
Artquilts: Cultures, PAQA Annual International Exhibit, Page-Walker Arts and History Center, Cary, NC
Searching (*Solo), Basler Gallery, Northeast State, Gray, TN
2007
Getting Warmer (*Solo), MFA thesis exhibition Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, TN
Adjunxtaposition, Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, TN
Bibliography-- Publications and Press
Review: Zuckerman Museum’s “Forget Me Not” another thoughtful, visually distinctive exhibit ArtsATL. September 9, 2015.
Intertwined Exhibiton Catalog. 2015.
Contemporary Women Artists: Reimagining Femmage Exhibition Catalog. 2015.
Flight Patterns: Voyage Across Fiber Mediums. Fiber Art Now. Vol 4, Issue 2 Winter 2014/15.
SEFEA: Life Support for Fiber Arts Educators. SDA blog. Mar 3, 2014.
An Interview with Jess Jones http://www.ithinkweshouldtalk.com/jess-jones/ Jul 20, 2014.
Q&A: WonderRoot’s Unsettled Breaks Conventions of Textiles Interview, Burnaway. Dec 22, 2012.
Creative License (Nashville PBS series) Interview, aired Dec 2012.
Art Quilts Elements Exhibition Catalog, 2010.
500 Art Quilts Lark Books, 2010.
Quilt National: The Best of Contemporary Quilts Lark Books, 2009.
RESIDENCIES
Penland Winter Residency Penland, NC
Paducah Arts Alliance Paducah, KY
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Tennessee State Museum, purchased 2011
LECTURES and PRESENTATIONS
2015 Artist’s Talk Jess Jones: New Work Southeast Fiber Artists Alliance (SEFAA)
From Her Perspective: The Contemporary Female Artist, Zuckerman Museum of Art, KSU, Kennesaw State University
American Women Artists in Dialog, Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta GA
2014 Celebrating Africans in Atlanta: African Textiles Panelist, GSU Atlanta, GA
2013 Connections in Texture: The Pedagogy of Josef and Anni Albers
BMC Pedagogy Panel presentation, Black Mountain College Conference, UNC Asheville
2011 Artist’s Talk, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
2010 Interaction of Texture: Josef Albers’ Matières
Albers Panel presentation, Black Mountain College Conference, UNC Asheville
2010 Artist’s Talk, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
2009 Artist’s Talk (Visiting Artist), Georgia State University, Atlanta GA
2009 Juror/Talk, Emerging Artist Award, TACA fair, Nashville, TN
GRANTS and AWARDS
2015 Commission for the Exhibition Forget Me Not, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
Faculty Research Grant, GSU
2014 Summer Research Funding, GSU
2013 Summer Research Funding, GSU
Juror’s Award, Third Place, Digital Technology/ Traditional Techniques Gray Gallery, East Carolina State Univeristy, Greenville NC
2009-10 Tennessee Master Craft Artist and Apprentice Program
2008 Juror’s Award, National Small Art Quilt Works, Groton, NY
WORKSHOP TEACHING EXPERIENCE
EXTENDED WORKSHOPS (week)
2013 Mixed Media Quilts, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
2011 The Painterly Quilt, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
Texture, Imagery and Content (Paper and Book Intensive), Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
2010 Itajime Dyeing I and II, Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN
SHORT WORKSHOPS(1-3 days)
2013 Coptic Stitch Binding, Tullahoma, TN
2011 Itajime Dyeing II, Tullahoma, TN
Itajime Dyeing I (beginning), Itajime Dyeing II, Tullahoma, TN
2008-11 Itajime Dyeing, Paper Marbling, ACC, Smithville, TN
2009 Digital Printing and Transfers, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
2007 Book Arts Workshops Series, Nelson Fine Art, Johnson City, TN
Book Arts Workshop for Art Teachers, Johnson City, TN