Jeri Hillis

Jeri Hillis (b.1962) earned a B.F.A from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1985. She continued with graduate studies in printmaking at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in museums and galleries in France, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Netherlands Antilles, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arkansas, St. Croix, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prior to moving to her current home in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Hillis lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands for fifteen years, where she was a founding member of the St. Croix Artist’s Cooperative Gallery at the Pentheny.

“I believe that I make marks that can contain the “wait” of words. As in a mark of thought, the mark of the pencil and brush, trace memory, truth, a belief of the mind and heart moving across the page through the positive and negative expanse of paper.” – Jeri Hillis

Hillis’ architectural paintings were featured at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs, October 2011, in exhibition “This is not a window. This is not a door.” She was juried into the 53rd Annual Delta Exhibition, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, 2010- 2011. She was also invited by the Arkansas Arts Council to exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum Trinity Gallery, Little Rock, “Thresholds: Landscape, Memory and Architecture” 2008-2009. She was awarded Purchase Prize by the Arkansas Arts Council, Small Works on Paper Exhibition, 2008.

Working as a Professional Artist, Teaching Artist, and Artist in Education with the Arkansas Arts Council’s Artists Roster; Hillis crossed the state with Joy Schultz for the Arkansas Department of Education to present 21 Fine Arts Professional Learning Workshops for Professional Development for Art Teachers in Choice Art and Collage and Appropriation in 2018. Working with the Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, Hillis has also enhanced the arts curriculum in the Hot Springs School District with ceramic workshops for third and fourth graders. She regularly teaches after school programs and adult classes at the non-profit arts organization, Emergent Arts, in Hot Springs. Hillis has been resident of Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas since 2005. She is listed on the Arkansas Arts Council Arkansas Artist Registry.