Jo Wood is a Duluth artist who is especially connected to and inspired by her experience of Northern Minnesota. ”I delight in the shape, pattern, and color of botanical elegance,” Jo states. Using tiny glass beads, and new and recycled textiles, she hand-stitches impressions of the world around her in a process she describes as “painting with beads.” Jo most often works on felted wool and stitches up to 200 beads per square inch, often taking months to complete a piece. Her intricate beaded designs captivate the viewer. The intimate scale of these pieces, combined with the density of the beads and the lusciousness of the colors, creates the impression of a jewel-like precious object.
As an arts proponent, Jo has served on the Board of Directors for the Grand Marais Art Colony and the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council. She teaches beading workshops for regional and national groups and at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais. The North Shore of Minnesota was her home for nearly 20 years. Much of that time she lived in a rustic log cabin where she hauled water, heated with wood, and painted with beads. Today, Jo is a Northern Communities Land Trust homeowner in Duluth, where she maintains her studio and garden. “My intention,” she explains, “is to create art that nourishes mind, eye, and spirit through a connection with the natural world, the abundant variety, peace and beauty of this Place.”
Jo’s work has been featured in the books 500 Beaded Objects and Beaded Embellishment as well as in Surface Design and Beadwork magazines. She has completed commissions for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and for the St. Paul offices of Springboard for the Arts. Her work is represented in numerous private collections throughout the country and is included in the art collection of the Minnesota History Center, in St. Paul.
Jo’s statement on her collaborative work with Lou Ann Forbes: Over the past 20 years I have worked with beads on a variety of surfaces. My favorite fabric to bead on is a machine knit and felted wool designed by Lou Ann Forbes of Maple Park, IL. Her business is called Blue Sky Prairie Textiles. The 4-color pattern can work as both figure and ground in my imagery. The design work is done with a computer. A disk with the pattern and the yarn are sent to a commercial knitter. The knit textile is sent back to Lou Ann who does the machine felting. In January of 2002 I was awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant to travel to Illinois and to work with Ms. Forbes. During my time at Blue Sky I designed several fabrics for specific bead pieces. Ms. Forbes consulted in the design process and had these fabrics produced for me. Over the years we have collaborated on several other textile designs and I have purchased remnants from her other projects for my beadwork.
