Jillian West (Copy)

A BRIEF HISTORY

While she’s always wished she went to art school, Jillian feared being a starving artist and put herself through college by working three jobs, the first in her family to graduate. After backpacking solo around the world at 21, she moved to England to work at the Crown Prosecution Service Press Office, and then to Australia for her Masters in International Relations, all while showing art at local shops and galleries and running her own fully booked photography business.

After working for the Government of Western Australia as a Negotiator and Project Manager closing a ghost town contaminated with asbestos (while also participating in art installations at the Art Gallery of Western Australia), she became homesick for American cereal and moved back to California just in time to watch the economy crash in late 2008. Fate and determination landed her at Twitter, a tiny company of twenty people. There she helped grow and protect the Twitter brand over five early, formative years, spending nights making and showing art and weekends moonlighting as a photographer. Finally, in 2013, she opened her dream shop and gallery, Electric Blanket.

Electric Blanket (then) was a spectacular project - she built an incredible community and curated the works of amazing local artists. In 2014 she cofounded Recess Events, a boutique event production company where she was able build art installations and design immersive experiences as Creative Director.