For over 25 years, Jo Dery has maintained a sketchbook practice that generates both images and text. A space for experimentation and play, her sketchbooks often contain the seeds of larger projects. The drawings in this collection were made using gouache, ink, pen/pencil, and collage, and reference Dery’s life in southern Vermont.
Jo Dery is an artist who experiments with visual storytelling. She makes short films, books and comics, works on paper, and multi-media projects. Her creative practice is rooted in drawing and writing. Her stories are inspired by folklore, memoir, and a deep love of the natural world. Her short films have screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation. In 2012, she received the Helen Hill Award, which supports innovative independent filmmakers. She has been awarded grants from the LEF Foundation, The Free History Project, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council. Her drawings and prints have been exhibited in Providence, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Her books and comics can be found in independent stores like Quimby’s (Chicago) and Little Otsu (Portland).
She earned a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She has completed residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as participated in an animation workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland.
She has more than a decade of higher education teaching experience, with a specialty in Film/Video and Animation. Based in Brattleboro, VT, she is currently an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Keene State College in southern New Hampshire. We are thrilled to work with her this year. You can see more of her work on her website at www.jodery.com.