ABOUT JILL

Jill Littlewood: Artist’s Statement and Resume

When I was little I was always secreting things in my room. They were the sort of things Boo Radley left for Scout: broken watches, little carvings, medals, bits of ribbon. I kept them in boxes and labeled them. Organizing was a way to have control and create order in a chaotic childhood.  When I first saw a box construction by Joseph Cornell I felt as though I was hearing someone speak my secret language. But I didn’t yet know anyone who was an artist or what that meant as a calling.

My teacher at the University of Chicago, Virgil Burnett, introduced me to the world of artists when I was in my 20’s. I confessed to him my family thought I was a crazy pack-rat and he said, “You’re not crazy, you’re an artist.”  He showed me the stages of making a piece: his daily practice of drawing, the materials he used, the way sketching in a museum would turn into illustrations in a book.  

After graduating from The School of the Art of Institute of Chicago, I took jobs that would teach me new skills: I was a student calligrapher at the Los Angeles County Graphics Department and a scientific illustrator for the L.A. Museum of Natural History. I studied letterpress printing at the Woman’s Building and Chinese calligraphy with a recent refugee from Mao’s regime. I illustrated my husband’s novels and began book binding.  Somewhere in the ’70’s I made my first sheet of paper; a decade later, when I met papermakers at a meeting of The Friends of Dard Hunter, I felt drawn to their world.  Paper can be so many things: books, sculptures, stage sets, lighting, paintings, costumes, a ground for prints.  I have made paper for all these things.

Art is thought made visible. What I am thinking about shows in my work - my confidence, hesitation, curiosity, fear. I hope that - like Boo - when I put out what is precious to me it becomes a treasure for you to find.