Artist of the Month

Jill Pope

For most of her artistic career, Jill Pope’s paintings have embraced the movement between time and place by making use of maps, both actual and re-imagined, to better define and describe an otherwise unattainable landscape.

Maps are used to define, and direct us to, a destination. We accept maps as factual and permanent, yet they are subjective, open for interpretation, and inclined to change over time. A map is merely a tool to aid us on a journey; they lend substance and structure to an otherwise aimless meandering.

In her paintings, Pope joins personally charged iconography with layers and sections of actual maps. Most recently, adapting these references and materials to address the situation in Darfur, Sudan.

Jill Pope received her MFA from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her paintings are held in numerous private and corporate collections.

TAL: How and when did you start creating art?

JP : I started painting in watercolor when I was 14 and sold my first ever watercolor that same year to my high school.  I didn’t get serious about art until I decided to go for my MFA and began graduate school in 1995.

TAL: What media and genres do you work in?

JP : Because I love materials, I will work in, or with, any media that may suit the project. I am just recently back to working in oils (since the beginning of this year) and I am loving the ability to really move the paint. There is a richness and subtlety with oils that is peerless.

TAL: Who or what are your influences?

JP : For the past six years my greatest influence has been the situation in Darfur. The mass genocide began there in February of 2003.  That same year my daughter was born and I began receiving emails from SaveDarfur.org. Having a child changes the way you see the world. Your first and basic instinct is to protect her. In the pictures I found from Darfur, I was confronted with images of mothers who were desperate to do the same yet powerless to fully do so.
 
My artistic references are as diverse and varied as Peter Doig, Joan Mitchell, and Guillermo Kuitca.

TAL: What was your inspiration for ""?

JP : “Abyss” was my first painting after a long stint away from oils. I wanted to play and wander around, discover the space of the painting. It is a combination of viewpoints: a convergence of landscapes of Darfur. Meant to capture the fire, desolation and incongruity of the devastation that is happening there the painting nonetheless conspires towards beauty to lure the viewer in.

TAL: Describe your creative process.

JP : I spend a lot of time gleaning maps and images from books and online. The Internet is a fantastic tool especially for this more recent work dealing with subject matter so physically far removed. I also tear out pages with good lines or useful imagery from art and fashion magazines. I generally have stacks of papers as references that I can look to throughout the process of the painting.

TAL: What are you working on currently?

JP : I just completed “Flowerfailure” a couple of days ago. I now have several paintings I am working on at once, all in various stages of completion. I like to move between small and large work. I will soon choose one to “settle in” and focus all of my attention on that painting. With the exception of commission pieces and site-specific proposals, all of my paintings and drawings deal with the situation in Darfur.

TAL: What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

JP : My near term goals are to complete this body of work so I can then submit my proposals to galleries, museums and corporate sponsors. I feel very positively that the Darfur work will be seen in a gallery or museum setting to call greater attention to the situation there. It is not getting better.  

TAL: Where can people view/purchase your work?

JP : www.jillpope.com   There they can see examples of work also available for commission.

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