Healing Arts

March 2013
Jill Stafford
Paintings
Medical Office Building
2nd floor Phlebotomy Lab

I grew up in New Hampshire watching my mother, an artist whose primary focus lay outside of painting.  Her hand traveled from pottery to sculpture, to making masks for the local masquerade ball. 
There, I was able to observe and take part in all of her creations.  Now as I paint, I see that I am interjecting different aspects of what I observed.  Sometimes I am sculpting in my paintings.  Masks from the masquerade ball appear as well as other images obtained from childhood in a small New England town.  The beautiful colors of stained glass windows from our church have stayed with me all my life.

Eight years ago I was fortunate enough to win a position with two other American artists to paint and exhibit with local artists in Paris for a month.  As fate would have it, I broke my arm a week before we left.  And there I was in Monet’s garden unable to hold a brush because of the cast on my right arm.  I could not open the tubes of watercolor paints brought to use, much less mix colors on my palette.  After looking in my paint box, I found four large tubes of acrylic paint with tops large enough for me to open.  I applied the paint directly to the paper and moved it around with the use of my left hand wrapped in a plastic bag.  In an abstract way I strove to paint the best I could, no longer able to refine my work.  The color was spread with slashing movements.  It appeared to maintain connection with its point of origin while flowing into images that were both strong and unusual. 
 
This experience was very instrumental in the way I paint today.  I no longer paint every leaf on the tree.  Now I paint in response to the color I place on the surface.  I rarely use a brush and never a palette.  I do believe in training, though.  Learning to actually draw, knowledge of the color wheel, and solid design are all invaluable in the foundation of an artist.  Today I try to learn new things about painting whenever I can.  What I learn, I store in my mind in hopes that when I face that white paper my heart can make the connection and results are new and fresh.
 
Jill is a past president of the South Carolina Watercolor Society twice and recently received her membership in excellence with this organization.  Her work is currently featured in collections in Japan, England, France, Italy, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.  Jill has served as President of the SCWS 2000 and again in 2004

I stepped away from art for about 5 years. I did this, to be equipped to serve on medical mission trips. After serving in Macedonia twice, Siberia twice, Jordan, Sumatra, Ethiopia, Nepal, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Bangladesh, I now paint from the experience God gave me in serving in these far away places. In my paintings I hope I can convey the path given me that took my team to the ends of the earth.

Artist Statement

Nowadays it’s considered very necessary to aquire a “style” or formula for painting. I think real style comes not from a technique of painting but a philosophy of seeing and living. Being original should be the result of vision, not of a cleaver brushstrok.  I am thankful for time spent in traditional work, because before you can depart from anything you must know what you are departing from. I now have a restless energy and a spirit if discovery which is reckless with intuitiveness, order and chaous. It’s a vision I seek not a conceptual idea. I don’t use a pallet and disregard anything regular like brushes. This is so I can paint directly from my internal feelings, with some basic instinct to it.

Art requires a tremendous commitment. Creativity I believe is a commitment to the creator. Art being the highest form of creation gives artist’s the chance to be the best we can be, for His glory. We have the best of the world and there is tremendous work ahead to fulfill our role as the created.
I desire my work to reflect his love and light.

Some of what I say echo’s the thought’s and words of men who have followed hard after God- Gerrard Manley Hopkins and Mako Fujimura. 

Further information about these pieces may be obtained by contacting Heather Williams of the Georgia Regents Medical Center Healing Arts Program by telephone at 706-721-1188 or by e-mail at hwilliams1@gru.edu.  Messages may also be left at the Volunteer Services Office at 706-721-3596.