Jodi Hays: The Giant Amongst Us
Jodi Hays is a giant living amongst us—not because she’s big or loud like me, but because her work is smart, expansive, and somehow keeps getting better every time you look at it. Her paintings and constructions linger in the mind like the statues from that Doctor Who episode: the ones that inch closer each time you blink or look away. You think you’ve seen them, and then suddenly, they’re there again—closer, clearer, unavoidable. Maybe it’s because Jodi’s work holds so much within it: her Arkansasness, her Vermont College of Fine Art MFA-ness, her Momness, her coolness, her generousness. It all coexists so naturally that anyone who encounters her work feels welcomed in. That openness is contagious. It sparks something in other artists—an impulse to try a little Jodiness in their own work. And while imitation never quite reaches the source, I don’t see that as a problem. I’ve come to believe lore itself is an essential ingredient in the casserole that is Nashville’s art scene. And lore often begins when an artist is copied—what’s that old saying about theft and flattery? But back to Jodi. Her recent double solo exhibitions at David Lusk Gallery’s Nashville and Memphis locations madeRead More
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