S12 E37: Delaware State of the Arts - Jill Althouse-Wood and the Arden Artisans Collective

Join us as we highlight our remarkable guest - Jill Althouse-Wood, an emerging DDOA fellow in the world of visual arts, whose work is heavily influenced by the culture of Arden, Delaware and the serene landscapes of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jill shares her artistic evolution, from gilded abstract forestscapes to the forest as a symbol of mystery and transformation, and how she's managed to keep her creativity alive in the challenging times of the pandemic. She also gives us an inside look at the Arden Artisans Collective, where she plays a crucial role, and their exciting future exhibitions.

Get an insider's view of Jill's recent show at the Buzz Ware Gallery, where she uses art to navigate through the complex emotions stirred by the recent past, inspiring others to share their narratives. Gain insights into how her fellowship has expanded her artistic practice, and glean priceless advice for budding artists. Lastly, stay tuned as we give you a sneak peek into her upcoming exhibition at the Arden Buzz Ware Gallery. Be prepared for an inspiring and enlightening journey into the world of an artist, guided by Jill Althouse-Wood herself.

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.

Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.

Transcript

Andy Truscott: 0:09

For Delaware State of the Arts. I'm Andy Truscott. My guest today is Jill Althouse- Wood, an emerging individual artist fellow in the field of visual arts. Painting. Jill follows multiple creative pathways the written word and the visual arts. After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in fiber arts and metals, she worked for 15 years as a textile designer. Recently she pivoted and has now made more time to devote to both writing and the visual arts. Jill resides in Arden and you'll learn more about some of her new initiatives there later on in this segment. Jill, thank you so much for joining us today and I wonder, as we kick off here, if you can just talk to us a little about your creative journey and how you find yourself where we are today.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 0:55

Well, thank you for having me. First of all, andy, my creative journey. Let's see, I don't think that there's a beginning and an end to it. It's just life. That's the way I see it. But I will say that our move to Delaware 10 years ago really helped spark a lot in me, especially moving to Arden as an arts community and having just the environment that we have in Wilmington right now. I was lucky when I moved here that one of the first jobs that I got was as I wrote articles and I got to talk to a lot of the people, the artists, people in culture in Wilmington philanthropic area. I just got to meet a lot of the movers and shakers and it was a great introduction and it really inspired me in my journey.

Andy Truscott: 1:47

You grew up in Lancaster County, pennsylvania, and I'm sure that brings some influence both to your artistic viewpoint and also how you grew up to craft your art currently. Talk to us a little bit about, maybe, how those influences shaped your work today.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 2:03

Oh, of course there's a lot of makers in Lancaster as well. They have a really thriving art scene, especially in the city. I admire so many of the artists there. I would say initially I was in Fibers. I was inspired by Amish Quilts. I was an art history minor and I did a study on quilts. I'm just fascinated by them, not just Amish Quilts. I got to see branch out from there and learn all about all sorts of fiber arts and I think that really drove me when I went to school to learn more.

Andy Truscott: 2:36

Your art has largely evolved from gilded abstract forest scapes to exploring the forest as a place of mystery and transformation. Talk to us a little bit about that shift and where the forest has emerged into your artwork. Maybe what inspired that?

Jill Althouse-Wood: 2:52

Yeah, when we moved to Arden, my living room looks out onto the forest and I've always wanted to live in the forest. It's interesting because where I lived before, I was surrounded by cornfields and when you would go for a walk you would just walk and you would see out over the whole landscape. I had these big, long, sweeping thoughts. And when you walk in the forest it's very focused walking. You're making sure you're not tripping over tree roots, things like that. I was just really inspired. Also, I joined a hiking group. On Sundays we hike and that's kind of my Sabbath now is hiking in the forest. It just really became, instead of going to church, this is where I was and it brought out something in me. I was really inspired by the nature, the rhythms of the trees as you're walking, the rhythms of your footsteps. It was a whole new way of looking at things when we moved here.

Andy Truscott: 3:56

Talk to us about the challenge you feel that sometimes artists face in just finding the time or the space to pursue all the different forms of creative expression you're passionate about.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 4:07

I feel like I go in so many different directions all the time. I'm writing and I'm doing my art and it really is. I wouldn't say a struggle necessarily, because I move from one to the other, but it's hard to, you know, plan my day. Basically, I Really aspire to be that person that has a schedule and does things at certain times, and I really try. You know, come first of the year, january, I'm mapping out my calendar and it never works out that way.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 4:38

Things pop up and, honestly, I work best when I'm moving back and forth from writing to art. It really allows me to take the beat and Come back refreshed to whatever I'm working on. I really would like to get a lot more work done. Also, I'm working out of my house and we have a small house. I don't have the studio space, but recently I went to an Alice Neil exhibit in New York City and I saw all of her portraits and she did everything out of her New York City apartment. So I'm thinking, you know, if somebody like that can function, I can too.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 5:18

And recently my husband and I we renovated our house a little bit, mostly visual stuff, you know, painting and things like that but we did carve out a little nook for me. That hasn't been there before and I I realize how important that is. Since the pandemic, we all were using our house differently than we did before the pandemic, because my husband's working from home, part-time, we had kids come back from college and working out of our house and, like I said, it's a small space. I think you just do what you have to do. There's times when I'm working on the kitchen table, there's times when I'm working on my patio and depends on the size of the canvas that I'm working on.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 5:57

And what's really nice right now for me is that my husband works in New Jersey for half the week and I'm able to spread out over the whole house For several days and then I put it all away and that's kind of when I do my writing. When he's home, I kind of go to a coffee shop and hang out and we call that my office. But yeah, it's, it's something that you have to. It's part of your journey and I don't think you can use it as an excuse. You just have to work around it.

Andy Truscott: 6:26

You're one of the few artists I've interviewed this year that kind of Gravitate towards two different art styles and I wonder, maybe you could share with us a little bit how Either they inform each other you know, do you find your paintings often or may Represent the the work that you're writing about, or vice versa.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 6:47

Well, I think my paintings have a storytelling quality to them. So there's that. I don't think that they're a direct relation to my writing right now. I was working on a novel before the pandemic. I put that aside and now I'm I'm just finishing up a book on. It's a nonfiction kind of memoir, personal growth, about our journey in Arden and utopia and finding community.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 7:12

Right now, I think deficit for people in community because people are moving away from their families. They're moving away from churches where we've found community before. We have this online community. I've really found something Special in Arden that I want other people to know about, and community is work. So I think if there's anything that informs both my art and my writing, it is that sense of community. You know the pandemic. We're not even working. We're working from home more so we don't even have our work families like we did in the past. So we have to really work hard to Create that element for ourselves and put ourselves where we're meant to be and Situated around people that will inspire us and will drive us to the next level bit of a two-parter here.

Andy Truscott: 8:00

Talk to me about what Collaboration and maybe kind of that community aspect of bouncing ideas off of each other. It looks like for a writer on one side but then an artist on another.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 8:10

I don't put a box around anything like. I can get inspired by writing in my art and vice versa. You just never know where an idea is going to come from. I don't do a lot of collaborative work, but I'm working on some things like group exhibits, which I haven't done too much in the past, and I think that's an interesting concept. Because of having this grant, my work was displayed at the Biggs with the rest of the fellowship award winners.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 8:42

So what I find interesting about this group exhibit was when you walked into the room. First of all, there were a lot of portraits in the whole exhibit and there was a lot of color, and it was just amazing how the artwork seemed to talk to each other and I just had that notion in my head, like what happens when the museum is closed? Do all these pieces interact and talk to each other? They just seemed like there was a story there, that there was something going on, and I think that energy from multiple artists is palpable, especially when you walk in. So I'm really excited about being involved in some of the group exhibitions that are coming up.

Andy Truscott: 9:20

I want to take just a minute here to remind our listeners that you're tuned into News Radio 1450, wilm and 1410 WDOV for Delaware State of the Arts, jill, arden is a really special place and, frankly, a really artistic place. For those that know what Arden is, talk to us a little bit about the benefits that you found for even yourself, just kind of living and working in Arden and kind of what are some of the really proud things that you shoulder as it relates to making sure Arden remains a really artistic and positive location.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 9:58

When I first heard about Arden it was in terms of it being an arts community and I was really excited to learn about that. It existed when I lived before in Lancaster County. I lived out in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't tell you where the nearest artist lived, like I didn't know where that was. So for me to have so many artists within walking distance of my house and you see it everywhere. You see it in public art, you see it in, you know you go into people's houses and they have artwork from all their neighbors there to see it from many years ago to, you know, present day. You have it in the Art and Fair where they support artists. They have at the Buzz Ware that they have at monthly exhibits, everywhere you look. You know even the Arden Club. It's the cultural umbrella for this area. Because you've got the concert guild, you're able to walk to concerts 20 times a year if you want to, and that's just been fabulous for us.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 11:01

One of the things that happened is that Arden was featured in a PBS special recently Well, the Movers and Makers.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 11:09

They were nominated for an Emmy for that episode and they came and they interviewed a lot of the artists in Arden and it was a great PBS special.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 11:17

However, there was no way to contact any of the artists, there was no way to figure out, you know, if you wanted more information about the arts in Arden. So we have this great community and I realized that we don't have anywhere to point people to to get an understanding about it. So I got together with some of the artists and we created Arden Artisans Collective, which can be found at ardenartisanscom, and we have now we have a web presence and we're working on some. That's some of the group exhibitions I was talking about coming up. They're coming up in 2024 because you have to plan way ahead for your exhibitions. But we do have a small art show in December at the Buzz where you can purchase art and see what the collective is doing. And I'm really inspired by the way that people are stepping up and, you know, forming this coalition so that we can, you know, be more, send our awareness out into the world and people can be more aware of the arts that we have here in.

Andy Truscott: 12:17

Arden, you mentioned the Buzz Ware. You've got a show coming up there in November, reception on November 3rd during the Wilmington's Art Loop. Talk to us a little bit about that show, maybe the common theme of it and some of the work that you're going to be putting up.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 12:31

Yeah, my show is the work that I've been doing over the past year and a half and since I've gotten this grant and the show is called All the Feels and I have I'm working on some bigger works than I've worked on before previously. They're all paintings. Well, there's some digital work. I have some digital work in there that I've had printed and then I go back and embellish after the fact. But mainly it's portraits and it speaks to like the last show that I had kind of went into the folklore of the forest, like kind of the storytelling aspects where the forest is a place where you go to.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 13:14

It's a mysterious place and then you come out, having been changed in some way, and I think that we've all kind of gone through the forest of coven together. You know this was an unknown place. We've never been here before. It was dark, we weren't sure how we want to emerge out of it. But we are emerging out of it and my pieces the show is called All the Feels, so my portraits kind of show the range of emotions that we all went through trying to get to this place that we are now but having to go to places we did not know we were going to. So I have works about anger, works about joy and everything in between.

Andy Truscott: 13:57

As you have audience members that come not only look at this upcoming show but look at your work. What do you hope audience members or art lovers kind of take away from your art, especially when it's transformed by their own individual experiences or interpretations?

Jill Althouse-Wood: 14:13

Of course I love that audiences bring their stories to my art. So you know, when I get done creating, it's when I hand it over to the audience and then they get to interact and have their experiences. Of course everybody has had their experiences with COVID and even the political climate that we're in, which is kind of changing every moment, and I hope they bring to it and say, either you know, I've had that feeling or I know what that feeling is and they can kind of connect it to their stories that they've had during this time period, which I think is a very I mean, for me it's been a very unique time period in my life. I've never experienced anything like it. So I know that everybody has their stories and we're still processing all of those and I hope that through my paintings that people can, you know, start to talk more about their stories and in doing that process, and move through them to the next phase of life.

Andy Truscott: 15:14

Talk to me a little bit about kind of the background of you know how you use art to explore and express some of these. You know complex topics, complex feelings.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 15:24

Well, I'm a little selfish in that I do it for my own personal venting, I would say, and I listen to different playlists for different paintings that I'm trying to evoke of a mood it's funny because I'm trying to come up with a playlist for the show to have in the background which nobody can ever hear. But I like to know is there and and move through the emotions that I moved through when I was painting. But yeah, for me it's, it's a distillation of what I'm going through and it really helps me to process and I worry less about the end result than what it's doing for me personally.

Andy Truscott: 16:04

Talk to me a little bit about how the fellowship has allowed you to try something new, how it's allowed you to grow your practice, or maybe you know what, what uniquely, it has allowed you to do this this fiscal year.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 16:17

I don't know that necessarily. It's made me try new things that way. I think what it's done more than anything is given me more contacts, you know, and allowed me to move in circles that I wasn't in before, and I'm hoping to exploit some of those contacts and move my art to a new level. And it's also. The other thing is that it's really given me a lot of confidence. You know you work in isolation and you want to eventually be seen. I mean, a lot of artists aren't necessarily comfortable with opening night, but it's it's the part where you know you're giving your work to the bigger world and yeah, I have, I'm coming away with kind of it's, it's the pat on the back. It's yeah, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Keep doing it and and grow and move and tell your story.

Andy Truscott: 17:17

What advice would you give to either a younger you or an aspiring artist who's looking to really step their way into, you know, an artsy world?

Jill Althouse-Wood: 17:27

Wow, that's a good question. I think maybe slow down, listen, everybody wants to get to the next level all at once and we don't take the time to kind of listen to our inner voice and and to learn and to talk to people that have been there before. That's, that's something I did as I sat down and I had coffee with previous grant winners when I got this grant to find out how I should use this, you know, to take my art to the next level, what they did, what they would and, and they said the same thing. You know, just, it just puts you in a space where, like I said before, you're more confident. So in that confidence comes a relaxation and I think that's the big thing to just be able to the sigh and, you know, not be so hard on yourself and then let everything come through that's supposed to come through.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 18:34

We're in such a fast-paced world and you know artists are supposed to be doing all this marketing and we have to wear so many hats. As an artist, I was just watching a video of Lauren Peters taking down a show and I love that she posted this on her on her Instagram. You know where she the process of taking her art down and that's all it was. Her taking her art down and boxing it up, but people don't see that part of of what you do. So I think a lot of artists are really hard on themselves, but they have so many things that they're trying to do and yeah. So I would just say, kind of be kind to yourself.

Andy Truscott: 19:14

Acknowledging in this next question right that everyone's answer looks a little different for Jill today. What does success in the arts look like for you?

Jill Althouse-Wood: 19:24

Yeah, I've been asking myself that for a long time. I don't think there's an arrival, because you're always striving for the next level in whatever you do. So it's kind of hard to say what you know. You artists crave that outside validation, but at the same time, you have to know when you're doing good work. And just because you're not getting that validation and you're doing and you know you're doing good work, is that not successful?

Jill Althouse-Wood: 19:53

I think you know it was really funny, because I wrote a novel that came out in 2007 and I wrote the novel five years before it came out, so I was already a writer, but I couldn't tell the world that I was a writer because I didn't have a product. But yet I was every bit as successful, having accomplished that the day that I finished it, as I was the day it was published. So I think we put too much emphasis on that word success. We really have to, you know, look inward and be our own guide and to stay true to our you know compass, our true north, and when you do that that's, I guess, successful.

Andy Truscott: 20:34

Jill, tell our listeners where they can go to learn more about you, to see some of your work online and maybe see where some of your next upcoming exhibits are.

Jill Althouse-Wood: 20:42

I am at JillAltHouseWoodcom. That's my website. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook @Jillalthousewood, it's just you know. Look it up, there's not too many of us, just me.

Andy Truscott: 20:53

Thank you so much for joining me and a reminder for our listeners Jill's exhibit goes up on November 3rd at the Arden Buzz Ware Gallery. That's all the feels. November 3rd at the Arden Buzz Ware Gallery. Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Delaware Division of the Arts in partnership with News Radio, 1450wilm and 1410WDOV. The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware.