She sketches the composition – drawing has in recent years become an important part of her process. Translated by the laser they become pixelated, degraded, or essentialised images. These she doctors further on Photoshop, using “magic wand” especially, to tidy things up, to get rid of foreground detail, etc. She has to work on small pieces or fragments because her studio is so small – but she turns this to her advantage.

These multi-panel works remind me of one of the transitional phases in Piet Mondrian’s progression from figuration to abstraction. Her colouring is intuitive – she has been affected and made more comfortable with colour by a break in the USA making and glazing ceramics. She applies it with an airbrush. She likes the delicacy of that process.

Jill Paz utilizes drawing, photography, painting, and ceramics, in a diverse practice that may appear analytical, yet intimately presents a personal life. Born in Makati Philippines, she studied art in North America at the Columbus College of Art and Design, the University of British Columbia and Parsons School of Design. In 2015, she received her MFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. Now based in Manila, her studio practice is informed by her relationship to her homeland as a Balikbayan, which translates to ‘person who returns home’ in the Tagalog language.

Recently, Paz was the recipient of a fellowship residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (2023). She has been the recipient of the Philippines Artist Residency Program, resulting in a residency and exhibition at Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle, France (2019), and was the recipient of the Greater Columbus Art Council, which resulted as a residency and exhibition in Dresden Germany (2016). She has participated in thematic residencies at Ox-Bow School of Art, Michigan USA (2022), the Banff Centre, Alberta Canada (2015), and Mildred’s Lane, New York USA (2014).