Bio:
Heather Jones is an artist, designer, and educator whose work questions and pushes traditional conceptions of both quilt making and painting. Her work is represented by Imlay Gallery, Montclair, NJ; the George Gallery, Charleston, SC; Jenner McGuinn Studio, Atlanta, GA; Simon Breitbard Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; and is available through Marta Hewett Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio and Moremen Gallery, Louisville, KY. She is a three-time winner of the Project Modern Quilt Design competition and a two-time finalist for the Martha Stewart American Made Awards. Her work has been exhibited widely at national and international venues including the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH (solo); Marta Hewett Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Iowa Quilt Museum, Winterset, IA; New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA; Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany; drj- dr. julius | ap, Berlin, Germany; the University of California, Berkley, CA; Raygun Projects, Toowoomba, Australia; and the University of Dayton, Dayton, OH. Heather’s first book, Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday was released in October 2015 by STC Craft, an imprint of Abrams, New York.
Heather’s work has been featured in numerous books and magazines, and online publications such as Martha Stewart Living, Apartment Therapy, Lucky Spool’s Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making, Modern Patchwork, Modern Quilting Magazine, and Curated Quilts. She teaches quilting and design workshops across the country, offers online classes through Creativebug.com, and has appeared on PBS’s Quilting Arts TV and Fresh Quilting.
A native Cincinnatian, Heather studied art history at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, earning both a Bachelors of Arts and Masters of Arts (ABT). She currently lives outside of the city on a small farm with her husband and two young children.
Statement:
My work explores the formal possibilities of color and shape, often through geometric and striped compositions. I am drawn to fabric, to its familiarity, its inherent qualities of saturated color and textural luminosity, and its invitation to be touched. Fabric reflects, captures, and interacts with light in a way that no paint can. I choose to create paintings with fabric because it feels honest: clean lines are formed between colors through the process of being sewn together, rather than through the use of an artificial barrier like tape. By manipulating fabric and pulling it taut, seam lines shift and stretch, revealing their final placement only once the painting is finished.
I am also interested in the historical and socio-political relationship between women and textiles and women’s work. I explore the relationship between gender, place, time, and culture in my work, as a way of connecting with my Euro-Appalachian ancestors who settled into southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky, many of whom made goods with their hands as their livelihood and connection to their ancestral homes. Conceptually, my work carries on the tradition of woman as maker, and it pushes the boundary between fine art and craft, and questions the definition of painting.