Biography
Jodi Maas was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and moved several times during her childhood. Having lived in Hong Kong for five years, Jodi experienced the diverse cultures and fascinating beauty of many exotic countries including India, Nepal, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines.
Jodi’s mother provided her early creative influence by involving Jodi in craft projects, making elaborate holiday cakes and decorations, and enrolling her in art classes at the local community center. Jodi’s father also inspired the budding young artist when he drew a huge mural outline from the record album cover of the movie “South Pacific”, and allowed the five-year-old Jodi and her sister to color it in.
Her lifelong love of art led Jodi to pursue an education in the field. She graduated from Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a B.F.A. in Illustration. After college, Jodi worked as a paste-up artist, photo retoucher, art director, therapeutic horseback riding instructor, and finally a fine art painter. Since then, she has been creating art professionally for more than 20 years.
Jodi’s diverse careers have lent color, inspiration and influence to her calling as an artist. “It’s been a progression of me enjoying things that have a nice visual end result,” says Jodi. “The brochure turned out great, the retouched photo looks natural, the riding student looks competent, the painting was a success.”
Jodi finds creative inspiration all around her: in the color palettes of nature, magazines, meditation, art galleries, art museums and books. Her art takes the viewer on a journey of pure inspiration, infused with a dramatic yet tranquil essence that guides the spirit into realms of new expansion.
Jodi describes her work as a spontaneous blend of harsh and soft applications of paint – applied fast and furiously – coupled with slow and deliberate layers to create a contemporary urban feel. The subtle layers and rich depths are an invitation into an ethereal mystique, revealing unexpected details that delight and entertain. She prefers to work with acrylic paints, because of their transparent layering qualities and depth, along with the added bonus of drying quickly. Says the artist, “My paintings take on their own life as I paint them. I don’t plan it out first, I work very spontaneously.”
Jodi views all the elements of life as art in action, and her style is always evolving with new experiences that she encounters each day. She hopes her viewers will get “. . . a good feeling from looking at my art and seeing something new every time – a feeling of wanting to investigate the piece more closely.”
Following her extensive travels, Jodi settled down in the Arizona desert. Whether she is engaged in her other favorite activities of horseback riding, yoga, sewing or volunteering with “at risk” children at FreeArts of Arizona, Jodi is always gathering compelling inspiration for her paintings.
Jodi offers excellent advice about art and life: “Do what you came here to do.”
Quote
“I want my paintings to express a deep sense of self as the whole.”
Personal Statement
“I want my viewers to get a good feeling from looking at my work and seeing something new every time they look at it – a feeling of wanting to investigate the piece more closely.”
Fun Fact
During high school and college Jodi worked as a horse farm groom, and as a city park worker lining baseball diamonds.