JODI HAYS

JODI HAYS

  • PAINTING
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2017-18
    • earlier
  • EXHIBITIONS
  • PRESS
  • ABOUT
  • CV
  • PROJECTS/WRITING
  • CONTACT
Interview: Mineral House Media
2020

2020 January Resident Interview: Jodi Hays


Read Full Interview


MHM: Much of your practice has been beautifully documented and catalogued throughout your career. In what ways does this creative record illuminate throughlines within your work?


JH: I have always relied heavily on daily practice, most consistently through sketchbooks. They have been a familiar container for over 25 years. The interest in artist books came for a few reasons; to honor the book form (as reading is another important part of my research), and in some cases, like Keeper (collaborators David King and writer Joe Nolan) I hoped to have a desirable, affordable component to my solo show of paintings. 


Most recent books (on my site) are like recipe books, a context for my abstraction. I have divided these up into categories that have been consistent prompts: fragments, build, heaven, text. I made them as poetic (and affordable) extensions of and illuminations on my practice.


MHM: What are you reading right now? Could you describe any particular passages or themes that resonate with your current time in studio? 


JH: I have been reading CD Wright’s poetry this winter. She is also a native of Arkansas. Steal Away and One with Others. I feel understood.

Ninth Street Women, reading with a few women artists for a book club.


In the fall I picked up White Girls by Hilton Als and read the essay on Flannery O’Connor called The Lonesome Place. I am still ruminating on how this essay begins to get at the frayed edges of a southern identity or habit, and the role of the writer/observer.

Others in rotation now: Spying on the South, Water Dancer, and stacks of books of poetry that are overdue but I’m glad our library no longer has fines.

c. Jodi Hays, Sign Up for Newsletter or Contact Jodi

An Icompendium Site