Jill Specks Ceramics Painting/Mix-Media/Drawing Purses Resume Artist Statement For information or comments, contact: Jill Specks 2626 N. Lakeview, Chicago, IL 60614 Phone: 773.750.5763 Email: jsjs@rcn.com

Artist Statement Trained as a painter, I became a serious hand-building with clay in the 1980s in order to achieve added dimension in surface and texture. I am fascinated with color, texture, and line. Combining the figure with abstract and words. My style has been categorized as expressionistic as I create figures, animals, personal imagery or abstract forms. CERAMICS: I have shifted from free form, primitive vessel work and simple glazing to more complex, multiple forms based on the female figure and personal imagery. I hand-built each vessel as a unique form and tend to work in a series or story. Multiple cone 06 firings layer glazes and oxides for complex surface texture and color. * The SPECIES series are vessels based on the female form that sway and undulate with the litheness of dancers. They personify female forms that live in tribes in another universe. I am currently (2004) working on male forms. * MOON FLOWERS are meant to be installed in a fountain or garden * "OOH LA LA" - functional tabletop vessels that rely on specific color combinations and etchings/drawings and writing - many viewers say they look French. PAINTING/ DRAWING/MIXED MEDIA:: * A series of representational paintings called "I'm Dead and You're Sleeping" explores the household dynamics of a man, a woman and 2 cats. They are painted from a bird's eye perspective or that of a spirit floating above the room, looking down on the room and activities. I am still reminded of a childhood dream, one where I would fly around the ceiling in our apartment on a magic carpet, so close to the ceiling I could touch it, and as I looked down to the floor I can still remember the magical feeling. * I draw the nude with either pastel or charcoal - expressive, quick and purposeful strokes. A series called "Ex-Las Vegas Show Girls" explores the images of women over 45 years old...I created their costumes after the live models went home. They are whimsical, colorful and tell a story * Other works include whimsical looking animals and people - like the unknown woman with the fat torso and skinny green legs I sat next to at a spa in Miami.