Jill Powers creates environmental art and contemporary fiber art with unusual natural materials. Her primary material is Kozo, a tough inner bark, sustainably grown, which she laboriously cooks, opens, casts, dyes, and stitches into abstract sculptures or installation pieces.

Jill has been interviewed about her passion for the natural world and her environmental art in Hand Eye Magazine and Fiber Art Now. Her exhibition, Plants and Insects in a Time of Change, addresses the devastation of western US forests from bark beetles and forestry practices. Jill’s work also addresses issues of water scarcity and acidification, and droughts and wildfires.

Jill founded and teaches a course on Eco Art at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She also teaches workshops about unusual natural materials and processes, along with contemplative creative practices in her own studio workshops.

Her work is informed by collaboration with scientists, and extensive research and experimentation. She is interested in discussions of sustainability, biodiversity, water issues, climate change, and healing the land and society’s attitudes toward the natural world. She incorporates these into her contemporary art practices.

“The experience of creating with bark fiber connects me with the ancient people who first discovered its special qualities. Working outdoors as they did, I prepare the woody bast fibers and plant materials using traditional methods of cooking and hand beating, and then experiment in the studio with contemporary interpretations.”