Jill Torberson is an artist and musician from Portland, Oregon. Jill is the principal designer and owner of Weld Metal Works in Portland, Or. Jill works in steel, creating custom ironwork for homes and public spaces throughout the metro area. Jill also works in mixed media, and recycled materials. She has also studied painting in the old masters style, and uses that style to create modern works on steel plates.
While in Portland, Jill has studied printmaking, ceramics, mixed media sculpture, and metal arts, including welding and blacksmithing. She was a frequent guest artist at The Oregon College of Art and Craft, an alumni artist from The Museum of Contemporary Craft, and had past exhibitions with the Mark Woolley and Guardino Galleries in Portland, Oregon, as well as the Zeek Gallery in Salem.
Current galleries include the Guardino Gallery in Portland, Or, and the Rivers Gallery in Astoria, Oregon.
Aside from her gallery shows, Jill does private and public commissions in custom steel fabrication in the Portland area. She is a licensed contractor and certified welder, and creates custom gates, trellises, fences, railings, fireplace mantels and screens, as well as site-specific art for both indoor and outdoor placement.
Jill’s design approach to artwork and steelwork is to create pieces that are light by design. “Light” in these works refers to both the structure as well as the way in which lighting and shadow interact with the art. She allows the structural integrity of the steel do the work, which enables her to design and fabricate artwork that seemingly floats, or is light, or can be seemingly fragile. Steel is the perfect material to realize this vision of lightness and strength.
Some public art venues include Maryhill Museum Outdoor Sculpture Invitational Exhibition in 2007. Two works of sculpture were specifically made to fit into the landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. One piece, "Fertility Petroglyph", remains in the museums permanent collection.
Portland General Electric Company, Participation in "the Power House Project", where invited artists tour historic hydropower facilities, and create art which then travels for educational purposes throughout Oregon.
Portland General Electric Company, 2005. Commissioned to create sculpture for their corporate offices using surplus material from their power stations and metal shop. This was part of a citywide event called “Breakfast of Champions”, in which the city recognized businesses dedicated to the arts.
Portland General Electric Company, 2010. Commissioned in to create site-specific artwork from recycled sources for the PGE hydroelectric office at the Portland World Trade Center.
Portland General Electric Company 2012. Commissioned to design and fabricate art for The Alder Street sub station Portland’s Belmont neighborhood. The concept was to create work that captures the eye, while not completely obstructing the power station. Project is 60 linear feet by 8 feet high, and is the first of it’s kind for PGE.
Hoyt Arboretum, Portland, 2014. Oregon. This commissioned work was site specific and functional ironwork to adorn the public visitor’s center in Washington Park. Trellises and miniature fencing around a rock garden were made in a botanical style. We hand built leaves from steel wire to create the art features.
PHK Development Company, Marvel 29, St. John’s, Portland, Oregon. 2015. Site specific and historically relevant work for the lobby of a new market rate-housing complex on the East end of the St. John’s Bridge.
PHK Development, The Windward, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 2019
Site specific and historically relevant work to pay homage to the Oregon Furnace, which was built in 1866 at the confluence of Oswego Creek and the Willamette River, was the first iron furnace on the Pacific Coast. This archway serves as the entrance to the housing complex.
Portland Public Schools, Grout Elementary School, Portland, Oregon, 2015. Hand built replicas of the St. John’s Bridge and the Freemont Bridge. Each bridge replica is 6 ‘ high, and 10’ long, and cantilever 15 feet above a bio swale to serve as rain diverters for the garden. The pieces where a collaboration between the PTA and the artist. The work had to pass both a structural engineering test, as well as a welding test.
Good Samaritan Hospital, Corvallis, Oregon. 2016. “The Oregon Oak” was commissioned by the hospital committee for the façade of the new cancer center. The artwork was chosen for it’s relevance to the flora of the Willamette Valley, as well as the Oak Tree’s attributes in promoting health, strength, and healing. The work is 15’h x 21’ wide, and is made of steel with hand forged and colored oak leaves.
ART EXHIBITIONS and INVITATIONALS:
Maryhill Museum Outdoor Sculpture Invitational Exhibition, 2007. Two works of sculpture were specifically made to fit into the landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. One piece, “Fertility Petroglyph”, remains in the museums permanent collection.
City of Estacada, Oregon, 2010-present. “The Power House Project” is an educational art exhibition in in which 20 invited artists tour historic PGE hydroelectric power plants on the Clackamas River.
Oregon Garden, Silverton, Oregon, 2016.Jill was invited to create site-specific work that was featured in the “Art in the Garden” events for the summer of 2016.
Lan Su Chinese Garden. Jill was the first artist allowed to exhibit works throughout the garden. This was in the summer of 2019.
Portland Winter Light Festival. Artist in 2017-2019, and an active event volunteer.
ZGF Architecture, 2016. Presented a site-specific installation with Jeff Schnabel, professor of architecture and founder of the Portland Winter Light Festival. The show was about light, space, volume, and weight. The show transformed at night by placement of LED lighting throughout the installation.
Powell’s Books, 2016. One-person show entitled “Black, White & Read”The show explored the architecture of words and letters, and used these symbols of language as objects of art.
PDX Adult Soap box Derby-2017-2018.
Resume available upon request
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Published articles about Jill and her work can be found in the archives of Oregon Home Magazine, the Oregonian, The Bee newspaper, Oregon Live, The Portland Tribune, as well as many on line sources, including Rural Modern Home. There is an hour-long you tube video of a lecture Jill presented to the Hand Eye Supply Company in 2014.
INTRODUCTION
“Her interest in jettisoned materials is well understood by us, given our own interest in markers of rural Maine living, especially those from the past, those at risk of fading away completely.
Torberson’s contribution is not wholly that of resurrecting forgotten effects. She has an encompassing ability to transform literal into figural - to essentialize the already-defined into basic elements - elements she then utilizes to signify what was. She does all this, and in the process creates something entirely new.”
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Torberson’s work communicates an encouraging lesson about design; namely, to not take it for granted. Ubiquitous expression of function is just that: An expression - one of a possible many – ”
“Literally a “Jill” of all trades, Woodstock neighbor Jill Torberson has her hand in ceramics, printmaking and mixed media. But our favorites are her metal garden sculptures. Among her items sold at Dig, her work ranges from the abstract (like her Two Birds, One Stone garden sculpture) to the practical (like her reclaimed metal stair railing). Not only is her work locally made, but it’s often made from recycled materials found in Portland.”