A dinosaur kid from rural Pennsylvania who would later drop out of a graduate architecture program to escape a digital future, Bill Jones eventually found his way to North Carolina and to clay. Bill started making pots first at Penland School of Craft and eventually in Seagrove, NC where he apprenticed with potter and sculptor, Daniel Johnston. In the years since, Bill has taught and continued his art practice at several long term artist residencies - most recently at Township10 in Marshall, NC. Bill now lives above his studio in Winston-Salem, NC with his dog Joey.
"I grew up in an old stone house and from an early age found beauty in simple articulations of material. A loosely laid stone wall, a sketch done with a finger in damp sand, the haphazard stability of a quickly erected structure. As an artist, I work with simple materials and methods in a constant attempt to channel this same beauty. Regardless of the medium, I think of my work as drawings. Each piece is a passing attempt to realize a form in my head. My memory of these forms is a living thing and as it changes and distorts, so does my work."
Speaking of his 2026 Solo Exhibit, Drawings 1, Jones writes, "The first drawing I can remember making as a child was with my fingers in the dirt. While my technique and understanding have grown since then, I can’t shake the feeling that everything I make is connected to that action. My obsession with lines made by my fingers in the clay, spinning on the potter’s wheel, feels the same as that first drawing. Pulling these thrown pieces off the wheel, ripping them, stretching them out and bringing them to the wall then feels like another extension of the same drawing. This is also a search process leading to new forms and circling back on old ones. Maybe this is how I make sense of the world or at least myself."