Jill Allyn Flood

JILL ALLYN FLOOD

1968? to ????

History in Words and Photos

12/10/12

THORNTON GENEALOGY PROJECT 2011

Boiles Family
Dixon Family
Fecske Family
Hoyer Family
Labuda Family
Molony Family
Samko Family
Shaffer Family
Skarr Family
Sterling Family
Thornton Family
Wharton Family

Doss Younger Thornton - Sr
Margaret Gladys Sterling Thornton
Morris James Thornton
Erma Gladys Thornton
Doss Younger Thornton Jr
Ira Newton Thornton - Tex
Leonard Charles Thornton
Willy Clarence Thornton
Carl Thomas Thornton
Baby - no name - Thornton
Daniel Curtis Thornton
Mary Maxine Thornton

Now Jill Allyn Stafford

will put links here

Featured Local Artist of the Month:

Jill Allyn Stafford

http://sacramento365.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/featured-local-artist-of-the-month-jill-allyn-stafford/

Jill Allyn Stafford

Working with collage and mixed media, Jill Allyn Stafford is a self-taught artist who has been living and working in Sacramento for the past 19 years. Growing up, Jill moved frequently, calling small towns in Kansas, Oregon, and Washington State home. Living with her mother and Native American stepfather, she also spent time on the Prairie Band Potawatomie and the Kickapoo Reservations in Northeastern Kansas. This constant change of scenery greatly affected Jill’s creative spirit.

When she was 15, Jill was struck with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, leaving her on full life support, completely paralyzed and unable to communicate except through shoulder shrugs. By the time she began to bounce back, she says, "Everything we take for granted was a struggle for me." She had to relearn all basic functions--sitting up, feeding herself, walking--but once she had improved enough, she promptly returned to high school. This temporary setback had a major impact on her life--changing the way she thought about everything--and especially emphasizing the importance of communicating and connecting with others. Through her artwork, Jill seeks to make these connections and express her feelings, thoughts, and ideas to the world around her.

Getting started with art

In 6th grade, Jill gave up on art because she “realized that [her] drawings of princesses and their kingdoms were never going to look realistic.” Luckily, years later, she fell back into art through online message boards. She became friends with creatives in the comic book industry, bound together by their non-fiction storytelling. Jill says, “...through that exercise in creative writing...and the encouragement of my online friends, I tried to take my storytelling to a different level.”

That "different level" was storytelling through the use of collage and mixed media art, which she opted for because, as she says, she “knew [her] drawing skills were still at a 6th grade level." Jill began cutting out images from magazines and placing them in different environments (see “The Ghost in You”, at right). She began posting her work online, which received great feedback from her professional artist friends. Encouraged and inspired, Jill continued to pursue the art of collage and eventually got up her courage to exhibit her work in person.

Jill’s first show was a one-day 2nd Saturday event in 2007 at Vox Sacramento. She loved it so much that, not only has she persisted in showing her work, but she also began volunteering her time organizing shows for Vox. She used her knowledge from her day job as a legal assistant to help Vox gain nonprofit status and became one of its founding officers. (See more about her work with Vox in the “Philanthropy & community” section below.)

Since her first show, Jill has continued to work on her art, meet with other collage and mixed media artists, and develop and expand her style.

Influence & technique

As to what drives her art, Jill says, "I’m inspired by so many things that it probably explains why my work is all over the place." Influences range from friends and spirituality to just the challenge of coming up with new ideas for the group shows she participates in.

Her work "Inspired," pictured at left, is based on the memory of a good friend Jill lost to breast cancer. Jill says, "...her life and her grace inspired me to create symbols of both. My interactions and friendship with her took my style to a completely different level than it had before. I merged my love of lines and nature, and started using old sewing patterns and colored tissue paper in lieu of paint."

Recently, Jill has been renewing her interest in spirituality. Her Native American stepfather was a spiritual leader, and she was raised learning those traditional ways. Remembering a cross country trip she took with him in her early 20s led her to create a series of abstract landscapes (see “Boy, Could He Laugh [Halfway Through the Badlands],” pictured at right). Her stepfather was intricately tied to her spiritual beliefs, and, after his death, she was inspired to make the landscape series as a process of mourning and remembering.

Philanthropy & community

Jill uses her work to donate to a number of charitable events and causes, including fundraisers for Komen Sacramento, Dream.Develop.Do, the Crocker Art Museum, and Hearts for the Arts (an event for For Arts’ Sake).

Furthermore, Jill volunteers her time, serving for several years as artistic director for Vox Sacramento, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to promoting arts and artists in the Sacramento region. Holding this position from 2009-July 2012, Jill organized over 20 art shows for Vox, many of which have benefited other local groups such as Safeground Sacramento, Wind Youth Services, City of Sacramento’s 4th R Program, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), and others.

See Jill’s work in person

Her solo show retrospective, Jill Allyn Stafford: The Art of Collage, 2009-2012 is up through Oct 31 at ThinkHouse Collective. You can also catch her the last Sunday of every month, 11am-2:30pm at Open ART Market at Vox Sacramento (see info on September’s Market here).

Jill takes off to San Francisco Oct 13-Oct 14 to exhibit her work at the Alternative Press Exposition (APE) at the Concourse Exposition Center.

On Oct 20, her work will be on view at Artists for the Cure at Creative Vera Studio, which will help raise funds for Komen Sacramento - Susan G. Komen for the Cure through an evening of art, fashion, and music.

Image credits: Image 1: Headshot of Jill Allyn Stafford. Photo by Andy Brooks; Image 2: "The Ghost in You" by Jill Allyn Stafford; Image 3: "Inspired" by Jill Allyn Stafford; Image 4: “Boy, Could He Laugh (Halfway Through the Badlands)” by Jill Allyn Stafford; Image 5: Jill with Jim Shepherd, Jr. at Vox's "To Write Love" show benefiting TWLOHA in 2010. Photo by John Muheim; Image 6: Work from the Art of Collage show at ThinkHouse Collective by Jill Allyn Stafford.

Jill Allyn Stafford

Visual Artist

About the artist:

Jill Allyn Stafford is a collage and mixed media artist based out of Sacramento, California. Jill is a self-taught artist and has shown her work in group shows in The Sacramento Temporary Contemporary Gallery, Antiquite, Barton Gallery, Vox Sacramento, and in gallery shows in New York and Manchester, UK. She’s also had work shown in Beatnik Gallery as well as MAIYA Gallery.

http://www.sacramento365.com/profile/detail/13183

Jill Allyn Stafford: The Art of Collage, 2009-2012

Presented by ThinkHouse Collective at ThinkHouse Collective

August 24-October 31, 2012

ThinkHouse Collective is proud to present Jill Allyn Stafford's The Art of Collage, 2009-2012. Jill Allyn Stafford is a nationally exhibited Sacramento-based artist. Stafford has shown her work in group shows in The Sacramento Temporary Contemporary Gallery, The Kennedy Gallery Art Center, Antiquite, Barton Gallery, Vox Sacramento, and in gallery shows in New York and Manchester, UK. She’s also had work shown in Beatnik Gallery as well as MAIYA Gallery.

This exhibit will feature art created over a three year time span, Stafford's current work runs the gamut between urban cityscapes, dogwood trees, California poppies, billboards, black and white abstracts, and Midwestern landscapes. The unifying theme to these pieces is the use of various types of paper to tell a visual story: newsprint, tissue paper, magazines, sewing patterns, and vintage books.

http://www.sacramento365.com/event/detail/441689847/Jill_Allyn_Stafford_The_Art_of_Collage_20092012

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillallyn

Jill’s The Art of Collage collection will be on display at ThinkHouse through the end of October. Connect will Jill: on her website, on facebook, at her etsy shop, or via email.

http://thinkhousecollective.com/featured-artist

Artist Statement

I fell into art almost accidentally, having given it up in the 6th grade when I realized that my drawings of princesses and their kingdoms were never going to look realistic. Through online message boards, I became friends with creatives in the comic book industry. It was our non-fiction storytelling that bound us, and through those exercises in creative writing (my day job as a legal assistant for an amazing health-law law firm doesn’t require much creativity), and the encouragement of my online friends, I tried to take my storytelling to a different level. I knew my drawing skills were still those of a 6th grader, so I started with small collages, cutting images out of magazines and putting them into different environments. I posted my work online, and received positive feedback from my professional artist friends. With that wonderful reinforcement, I started making collages on recycled cigarette boxes (I don’t smoke but found smokers very happy to save their old boxes for me), and got up the courage to show my work in person. The simple act of putting myself out there was extremely empowering and a very uplifting experience. I continued to show my work, and with my exposure to different artists and their art forms, I tried new things: ripping paper instead of cutting it, using tissue paper instead of paint, embracing texture and layers and wrinkles (usually the bane of collagists).

I feel like I have different styles depending on my mood. I love the look of weathered billboards so I’ve made pieces specifically to resemble them, definitely creating a more urban vibe. I love the landscapes in the Midwest, and using ripped magazine pages, created miniature collages (2.5 x 3.5 inches) – abstracts of the beauty I saw during my numerous road trips across country. I’m also really drawn to urban landscapes, specifically the lines that are unavoidable: power lines against a blue sky, buildings of different colors jutted up against each other, the angles of a building standing out against the clouds.

MAIYA Gallery Hosting Art Auction

by Jill Allyn Stafford, published onOctober 27, 2011

This Saturday and Sunday, October 29th and 30th, MAIYA Gallery will be hosting "What's In A Name" - a very special art auction with 100% of the proceeds funding scholarships for two El Camino High School seniors attending college in the fall of 2012, and majoring in studio/fine arts.

The spin to "What's In A Name" is that each piece of art will be showing with the artist's name hidden. Each bidder will bid on a piece of art based on their appreciation of the art itself. The artist's name will be revealed only once bidding has ended.

"What's In A Name" includes art from the following artists (among others): Barbara de Wein, C!nder, Sylviane Gaumer, Bud Gordon, Taylor Gutermute, Miles Hermann, Maureen Hood, William Ishmael, Mary Kercher, Brooke Walker-Knoblich, Sondra Olson, Gary Pruner, Sean Randall, Robert Ray, Kerstin Ronsiek, Michael Rosner, P.Y. Simpson, Tom Sellas, Melissa Wood, and Shelley Hocknell-Zentner.

MAIYA Gallery will be open for bidding on Friday, October 28th from 1 - 7 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, October 29th and 30th, from 1-6 p.m. each. Of the 29 pieces donated, half will have bidding ending on Saturday at 6 p.m., and the other half on Sunday at 6 p.m. There will be a reception and art pick-up on both Saturday and Sunday from 6-8 p.m.

For more information please check out the website at www.maiyagallery.com/whats-in-a-name-2.

MAIYA Gallery is located at 2220 J Street, Suite 1, Sacramento, California.

About Me: I'm a legal assistant in a small health-law law firm, the artist director of Vox Sacramento (a nonprofit arts organization), and I'm a local artist.

Jill Allyn Stafford currently lives in Sacramento, with her husband, two amazing children, two dogs and a cat. Her day job consists of performing legal assistant work in a small healthlaw law firm. The rest of the time she cycles, hassles her children, avoids housework and the culinary arts, and works on digital photography, collage, and mixed media art.

Description of Work:

I collect used cigarette boxes, paint them, and then cover them with images found in art magazines. The theme for most of my newer cigarette boxes is "Pocket Zombie".

http://sacramento.downtowngrid.com/blogs/view/post/418

By Jill Allyn Stafford