My Work : Jill Berry Blog

My grandparents, Kelly and Glenn I spent yesterday spinning a tale, channeling the voice of my grandmother, Mildred Masterson McNeilly. She was called Kelly. She was complex, delightful to me, and challenging. In 1954 she and my grandpa went to Paris with my mother, who was 19 at the time and engaged (Holy cow, that [...]

Come on a my house

Posted on April 7, 2010 - Filed Under My Work, Real Life, Uncategorized, What I am up to | 6 Comments

Houses are the one highly overused symbol that I can’t give up. Just can’t do it. I know they are a dime a dozen, yet I keep making them as though originality means nothing to me. The house above is one of a series I did when I was working with house songs, in this [...]

Tiny Canvas

Posted on March 21, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, My Work, What I am up to | 2 Comments

Painting 4″ square canvases is fun, more so than I would have thought. Last week I finished up “SKY” and “ART”. Now I am working on a tiny map of Port Townsend, where Artfest is held. Might get it done in time for Vendor’s night. Mostly I am making maps because I love to do [...]

Magical Midnight Stories, real ones

Posted on February 6, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Creative Exercises, My Work | 3 Comments

My friend Nancy had a stroke last week. She is out of the coma she was in, but it seems to me that she is still not with us. It looks sort of like her, but I think she is on vacation, trying to figure it out. Her hospital room is devoid of flowers, but [...]

I am Here

Posted on December 12, 2009 - Filed Under About me, My Work | 1 Comment

I am once again tinkering with maps, navigation and figuring out a precise mental GPS for my whereabouts. This is a canvas, painted with plaster and stamped with metal letters. I painted it with sumi after it was dry, then sanded and scratched back some areas. Meanwhile, I painted and stamped art tissue, then collaged [...]

My Memorial

Posted on May 26, 2009 - Filed Under My Work | 21 Comments

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and I have someone to remember. His name is Roger Cobb Hallberg, and his name was on the POW bracelet I wore as a teenager. While I was dating and going to Disneyland, he was fighting, and then disappearing, in the jungle maze of Vietnam. A brave young newlywed just vanished. [...]