Heather Jones

1.  How are you and where are you?

My family and I are doing well. We live in Springboro, a small town between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. Our house sits on about an acre and a half of land, so we have plenty of outdoor space to spread out when we get too stir crazy inside. I live with my husband, and our two children, who are 12 and 13. My mom, who is high risk due to some medical issues, also lives with us, so we are being very cautious and closely following medical advice in terms of social distancing.

2.  What is your routine?

I’ve been really inspired the past few weeks, with everything going on in the world. I’ve made a few small pieces of work with undisguised political themes; my work frequently contains sociopolitical themes, but typically they are conveyed in a much more subtle style. However, with these small pieces, it feels important to me for the work to be blatantly political and a record of my response and reaction to the current political climate.

I’ve been particularly inspired lately by the use of color and text in the work of Jeffrey Gibson and the use of quilts and other ready-mades in the work of Sanford Biggers. One of my goals this summer is to experiment with incorporating both more text and ready-mades into my work.

3.  Is this a creative time for you, do you find inspiration these days?

This is not a particularly creative time for me, in as much as I have not had the time to create or to practice, which is where I find “creativity” comes from – the actual doing and making. It has, though, been a profoundly liberating time as I am able to have some distance from that work and practice and feel as though I have been set free from some self imposed parameters as well as habits that had developed over time. This has been really helpful in allowing me to re-envision my work, what and how I produce, and coming to a better understanding of why I produce, believing more than ever in the importance of the process and the necessity of the outcome.