Statement and Bio

STATEMENT

Jill creates jewelry and artwork that often explores her personal experience as a woman. Memories, daily interactions, and examination of this experience develop her material choices, surfaces, and forms. Work that utilizes the technique of crochet references traditional doilies, collars, and other historic accessories. The use of wire allows these lacey forms to hold their shape and permit more durability and permanence than a textile. Pattern and decoration in the work are appropriated from lace, crochet, or floral motifs. These textile techniques and patterns have a feminine subtext through their aesthetic value and process of making. Alternative, found, or non-precious materials are often incorporated for their nostalgic value, feminine connotation, meaning, or color.
 
BIO

Jill Baker Gower is an artist, jeweler, metalsmith, and educator who resides near Chicago, IL. She holds a BS in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA in Metals from Arizona State University. She has exhibited her jewelry and sculpture in numerous exhibitions nationwide. In 2019, she had a solo exhibition at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. Her work has been published in Metalsmith magazine, the book CAST, Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America 1920 to the Present. Jill’s work is in the permanent collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, the Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, The Enamel Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN.

Jill is a former resident artist of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN. From 2007 to 2018, she was an Associate Professor of Art - Jewelry/Metals at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. She served on the Board of Directors for the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) from 2016 to 2019. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art - Jewelry/Metals at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL.