In Banff today I took a pilates class, ate lunch while enjoying a jaw-dropping view, sat in the steam room, worked ever so briefly, soaked in the nearby hot springs with new friends, and ate an elk burger with pineapple. That’s what I call an artist’s retreat.

So happy to learn that the other one makes nice happy baby prints in fun colours! I feel instantly relieved of any and all previous guilt. Very nice!

RedRum, my show at Hallwalls is up and running now through late February. It features a new video, also titled RedRum that features young ghosts and houses that drip with blood.

Dear Buffalo,
Thanks to Hallwalls for everything and curator John Massier for the fabulous production assistance; the students at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and Jam Vafai for being my crew and actors; Joan Linder and Paul Vanouse, Julian and Colette Montague, Sandy Ludwig and Mark Kerwood, and Dennis Maher for lending their homes; The Buffalo Soundpainting Ensemble for creating uber-creepy sounds and introducing me to the ocean harp; Gerry Mead and Cori Wolff for lending paintings from their collections; and Debbie and Gary Hill for hosting me. Buffalo, I miss you already!
~love, Jillian

These are stills from my video, RedRum, currently in post-production. It will premiere at Hallwalls in Buffalo, opening Jan 15th!

I’ve been filming a new video in Buffalo, New York called Red Rum. It features a group of teenagers and me, as ghostly apparitions, in Victorian homes. And a decent amount of fake blood. Stay tuned.

…production still, above…

In case you thought I had long forgotten about Tempe and the desert, think again! Today I am furiously (actually, rather calmly) editing a stop motion animation shot on location at a private swimming pool, filmed with the help of three fabulous ASU graduate students - Alison Sweet, Cory Weeks, and Julie Ganas, and the uber-talented John Spiak. There are neither zombies nor vampires in this video, and no cacti were harmed.

Production still above.

-Jillian

Despite the title, no buffaloes will be harmed!

However there will be blood in Buffalo, New York this week as I head north to shoot a new video in residence at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Red Rum, filmed on location in Buffalo, features local young actors, musicians, and homes.

Stay tuned…

-Jillian

-Jillian

In the second week of November, Adam Murray and I transformed my apartment at ASU into a temporary recording studio.

Mattresses formed a sound booth (above) while the bed held instruments (below). We screamed, hissed, moaned, and played auto harp and guitar here. Plus the aforementioned celery snarfing.

We set up a nice little work station (above) while the rest of the room was a mess (below).

Sometimes we played nice (above), sometimes we argued over my “illegible” notes (below), and sometimes technology was not our friend (way below).

-Jillian

Opening tonight at ASU Art Museum.

Zombies vs Vampires is a video installation featuring two videos projected on opposite walls where zombies and vampires stage a dramatic Western-style showdown at dawn in the desert, amidst photographic murals that wrap the gallery in local desert imagery: cacti, mountain, rugged terrain, contemporary ghost towns, and graveyards. This work was created with a wonderful cast of locals in Tempe, Arizona, including 50 actors, 4 videographers, 1 photographer, 10 make-up artists, and 1 sound designer.

Very special thanks to Bluemedia for their generous in-kind printing of a 100-foot wide photo mural.

~photos by Stephen Gittins