Jodie Willis

Biography

My art career began in 2001 as a graphic designer creating print and digital advertisements and has since evolved into a multidisciplinary marketing & communications management role.
In 2018, after an almost 19-year hiatus from my oil painting hobby as a teen. I began to feel desperately incomplete and unfulfilled, I was utterly compelled to begin painting again, and so began this journey of re-discovering myself through art. As an old school anti-social type, joining the social media world to publicly expose my work was an important hurdle for me personally to overcome. Connecting and engaging with the global art community has been very inspiring, the tremendous support and encouragement received have pushed me to further explore and push the boundaries of my creative mind.

Artist Statement

Art for me is a cathartic process and the act of painting brings pure joy, allowing me to release feelings and freely express my viewpoint of the world. I intend to create emotionally uplifting works, transforming negative inflexions and reflections into elegant colourful images that can positively bring a sense of promise and joy to others. As I practice, learn & develop a style, my work remains experimental with conceptual cues from philosophy, culture, science, religion, nature & the human experience. I try to make sense of my world by combining multiple faculties of thought and discovering the relationships between them through art. I like to pose questions in my art that challenge viewers as well as invite them to discover the narrative within. To spurn inspiration & stay true to my expressive intentions, my process involves maintaining a monthly journal, a digital scrapbook containing, drawings, doodles, photographs, poems, ideas, discoveries, news clippings, articles, etc. Which sort of culminates into a state of mind summary which I begin to plan my paintings from. My process has developed towards merging abstract figurative elements into traditional “grounded” frameworks. I try to appease both the objective and subjective nature of perception through playful interplays between negative and positive space. I strongly believe the impressions and consequent judgements I make about others & the world around me are related to attributes that I would like to change within myself. Perhaps it is always most challenging to confront oneself, and that is my ultimate artistic goal.

Country Canada

Website www.saatchiart.com/jodiewillis