When I was in my 20s, as an artist and a painter, I discovered alternative surfaces for painting, including making my own artist’s paper. This led me to an interest in plant materials and a master’s degree in fiber art. I then worked three dimensionally with plant paper pulp that I produced from scratch (harvesting, drying, cooking outdoors, hand beating, casting, and pigmenting). Along the way, I developed some unique alternative ways of working sculpturally with plant and bark fibers. This work owes its foundation to the ancient Mayan, Aztec, Mexican and Polynesian Island traditions of bark paper, which I honor and bring into modern translation. The result is sculpture, installation art, and dimensional wall pieces.
I immerse myself in the natural world by going to wild places and slowing down to pay close attention to the smallest details. Experiences in nature have led me to work with elemental materials, direct from their sources in the earth. The unique qualities and vital presence embedded in these unrefined materials infuses my art and the questions I ask of it.
Years ago I fell in love with the tough bark fiber called Kozo. The plant is grown sustainably in Thailand for making into beautiful translucent papers. Branches are harvested, steamed, and the outer bark removed. I soak the inner bark and cook it down outdoors with wood ash, and then selectively open it carefully to reveal its internal webbed plant structure. The fully opened translucent fiber is referred to as bark lace. This material is then shaped, cast, pigmented, and formed into dimensional art. It is a meditative process. I especially love how the soft flexible bark fiber returns to its tough bark-like qualities when it dries. I feel very fortunate to work with my hands in this digital age. Working with bark fiber is grounding and inspiring.
The experience of creating with bark fiber also connects me with the ancient people who first discovered it’s special qualities. I love to work outdoors as they did, cooking down and preparing the woody bast fiber using traditional methods, and then experimenting in the studio with contemporary innovations.
A graduate of Tyler School of Art, Jill has shown her work internationally, and her work is in private, corporate, and museum collections. Jill currently teaches about kozo bark fiber (her primary material), and other unusual natural materials and processes in her own studio workshops, and at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Jill has taught at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon, the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii, and the Denver Botanical Gardens.
Some of my art revolves around the aesthetics and science of ecosystems, creating art in response to climate change, focusing on drought, flood, insects, ocean and forest ecologies. I get involved in my subjects in a deep way. For example, I raised 100 silkworms in my studio and collaborated with them to create sculptural insect chambers. This project developed into several year’s study of what is happening to insect populations in response to climate change, resulting in several exhibitions featuring western mountain forests and bark beetles.
A trip to the Pacific Northwest sparked an intense interest in the great changes occurring in oceanic environments as climate change progresses. The experience of kayaking through a kelp bed led to research about the subject of seaweeds and the visiting ocean habitats to learn more. My life long love of the ocean, and the beauty and captivating details of seaweed ecology drew me to create the solo exhibition entitled Hold Fast.
I continued my interest in marine life through recent research into the Western Interior Seaway- the inland ocean that once covered the places she now lives in Colorado. Through fossils and geologic evidence from the Cretaceous time period in Colorado and New Mexico, Idiscovered interesting details in the fossils which are the focus of another body of work, which i relate to current environmental issues with sea level rise and the extinction of species.
Mycology is the study of mycelium and mushrooms. Discovering the beauty and science of mushroom life cycles inspired artist books, new prints, wall pieces, paper castings, and mixed media pieces. The newest environmentally related series focuses on Atmosphere, and the beauty and health of its essential nature.
Jill is one of the founding members of the Colorado Paper Collective, and is a long time member of the North American Hand Papermakers, and the International Association of Papermakers and Artists. Jill has been interviewed about her passion for the natural world and her environmental art. She has shown in galleries in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, and Denver.
Jill has had many art residencies, most recently on Bainbridge Island, WA at the Bloedel Reserve. She was awarded two Terraphilia Artist Residencies that facilitated six months of research to deepen the scientific basis for the ocean and seaweed related art. With grant support she visited numerous ocean locations, meeting with scientists and learning about seaweed related science.
Read the article about Jill’s work in Fiber Art Now. See her work in 2025 exhibition Paper Made II.
Go on a tour of Jill’s studio and watch an interview with Helen Hiebert, paper artist and author in PaperTalk.
