Jess Jones

Jess Jones is a textile artist and Associate Professor of Textiles at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia as well as Affiliate Faculty with the Institute of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jones's work examines psycho-geography, textiles' relationship to the urban environment, and the creation of digitally derived layered and stitched compositions. 

"Quilts often reveal the circumstances of their makers. While quilts can display access to technology, materials, and leisure time, they also can expose extreme resourcefulness and need.

The original quilt tops in my work, hand sewn by anonymous makers, and discarded to thrift stores, inspire me to consider those with whom I share the city landscape. I layer these original pieces with geographic data, creating a digitally derived stitched drawing of the topography of a specific location. I address my fellow quilters directly by both quilting my interaction (rather than using other media) and connecting formal elements of their work with the geographic locations I am overlaying. I hope for these playful combinations to be slightly more accessible to quilters emphasizing our potentially shared locations and experiences. 

Textiles have topography and they naturally lend themselves to work involving landscape. The socioeconomic landscape in Atlanta is changing dramatically and sections of the city shift to include some people and exclude others. Through spoiling these original works I preserve them, and my work is a way of feeling connected in a city that does more to separate than connect us."