Suitt Gallery At SMC Hosting Works Of Upstate SC Native

08/21/08

SPARTANBURG, SC - The Mary Ellen Suitt Gallery at Spartanburg Methodist College is hosting the works of Jill Jones, a regionally known artist, until Sept. 30.

Ms. Jones holds degrees from the University South Carolina and Converse College. Working primarily in oils and pastels, she has had work included in exhibitions juried by such prestigious curators as Lilian Tone of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, nationally-known artist Burton Silverman and internationally-known artist and illustrator Sue Coe.

Her work has garnered numerous awards, including Best of Shows from Upstate Visual Arts in Greenville, SC, the Anderson County Juried Exhibition in Anderson, SC, and the Artists' Guild of Spartanburg.

Jones focuses almost exclusively on landscapes, painting largely from memory of a childhood spent in the rural Upstate of South Carolina.

The scenes are pointendly simple - fields overtaken by kudzu, forgotten peach orchards and overgrown fields - and recall long days spent on horseback exploring her surroundsings. But the work is less sentimental than it is dark and moody, with something of an existential quality.

"To me, all landscapes are self-portraits," Jones says.

"Trees serve as surrogates for the human form. Skies reflect mood. Even the lay of the land, whether rooling and expansive or flat and confined, represents less the worls around me than a world within," she adds.

Jones has been represented since 2002 by Elder Gallery in Charlotte, NC, where she has been featured in both solo and two-person shows, as well as regular gallery exhibitions. Her work is included in private and corporate collections across the United States.

The Mary Ellen Suitt Gallery is located in the Marie Blair Burgess Library at SMC. It hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:30 am - 10 pm; Friday 8:30 am - 1:30 pm, and Sunday 7 pm - 10 pm.  The exhibit is open to the public. 

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 97th year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment.  More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information, contact Ann Wenz, Professor of Art and Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at SMC, at (864) 587-4279 or Brian Fulkerson, Director of Public Information, at (864) 587-4254.

####