Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Hays.
Jodi, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born to smart and resourceful humans in small-town Arkansas. My interest in landscape surely comes from the experience of hay bales and lumberyards as much as growing up almost literally in a National Park. Now a Nashville-based painter, I finished my BFA at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) and my MFA at Vermont College of Fine Art.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Landscape is a consistent prompt for my work. My core iconography rests on the grid and all its history and associative connections with landscape–fences, gates, borders and walls. When a friend of a friend was shot at dusk across the street from my napping family, our porch camera captured it, allowing us (and police) to view the video feed after the incident. My life and studio concerns coalesced into a body of work on neighborhood, police, surveillance and photography with fences and boundaries as stepping off points. Painting is an alternate measurement.
How can artists connect with other artists?
I once heard Zadie Smith tell Ann Pachet that the only talent there is in writing is the honed ability to be alone for long periods of time in order to get the work done. I can relate to the need for vast amounts of solitude, but I also know that our lives are built around and meaningful because of community. Get to know other artists, invite them to trade studio visits, read about your peers, go to their exhibitions, know and support your people.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have a few exhibitions across the country coming up, and my gallery out of Nashville, TN, The Red Arrow Gallery often goes to Art Dallas. In addition, Flat File Art (Montclair, NJ) and Show and Tell (Charleston, SC) show the work.
I have a solo show coming up at Covenant College in Tennessee January 2019, and am included in a group show of “southern” artists at James Madison University’s Duke Hall Gallery (John Ros, Curator) the same month. People show go to shows, get to know artists and purchase art work–what a way to contribute to a healthy world of empathy!
Links:
http://jodihays.com/
https://www.theredarrowgallery.com/
https://www.flatfileart.com/
http://showandtellartanddesign.com/
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jodihays.com
- Email: jodihays@gmail.com
- Instagram: jodihaysstudio
Image Credit:
Kristi Jones
Daniel Meigs
Both noted on filename.
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
