05 Sep Small wonders: Jo Wood’s bead paintings offer a sense of place

Some painters use oil, some use watercolor—Jo Wood paints with beads. Ripple River Gallery will feature Jo Wood’s bead work beginning August 14. Her show will continue through September 15.

“I am a bead artist inspired by nature, my sanctuary,” Jo Wood says. To create her impressions of nature’s ever-changing patterns, she sews tiny glass beads on felted wool.

Wood, who lives in Hovland, MN, explains, “My ‘paintings’ express my sense of place.”

Living and working in northern Minnesota have given Wood an intimate relationship with the shorelines, forest trails and gardens where “flowers gesture, trees reach and water moves.” Through her art Wood shares her connection to nature, celebrating its abundance and conveying qualities of peace and beauty. “I delight in botanical elegance, Each series of ‘paintings’ is a tribute to the beauty and enchantment of nature.

“For me, life is tactile and labor intensive…like my beadwork. It is a patient art form. Choosing one bead at a time and stitching up to 200 beads per square inch, it can take months to complete a piece,” Wood said, noting that the way light plays in and on the glass creates amazing color possibilities.

Jo Wood’s bead and fiber landscapes have been exhibited throughout the United States and can be found in the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, and Mayo Clinics, Rochester. Her work has been published in several books and periodicals. She travels to teach bead embroidery workshops both regionally and nationally.