ARTIST STATEMENT BY JILL BEDGOOD, 2004

Exploring the power of the inherent nature of materials and their many connotations, I am engaged in using evocative substances – their inherent properties and characteristics, associative meanings, and latent content. The process of manipulating materials over a period of time recalls the cyclical nature of human experience and memory. The art engages the viewer both emotionally and intellectually and provides a poetically whole expression of human existence. My art draws together perspectives of spirituality -- to meditate on the sublime of pure, minimal forms and to contemplate the beauty of the obsessive and overly, embellished. A bird’s feather embodies the complexity and simplicity of existence. Austerity and excess, reason and emotion, physicality and consciousness interconnect to create the human balance and ethical compass.