One of the things I was most excited about in starting up A Few of My Favorite Things was the chance to interview and share great artists. Many of my friends are truly talented painters, writers, photographers, or craftspeople and I wanted to share that. (I am also excited to make new creative connections).
To kick off the series, I’d like to share work from my friend, Jodie Lee Maurer.
Jodie and I met in college and got to know each other when we were fortunate enough to take part in an abroad to Greece and Turkey. The trip was art-focused and though Jodie was not a major at the time, she had always had a love of and talent for art. After trying Education and Business, Jodie settled into an Art major. One thing that really struck me about Jodie from our travels was her sense of adventure. Anytime I wanted to do anything slightly crazy, I’d ask Jodie. One of our most memorable adventures was a late-night oil pastel session, capturing the dark hills of Santorini in the moonlight (Not a bad way to begin a friendship:)
When I caught up with Jodie a few weeks ago, I found her living in New York – just outside of the city and within a couple hours of much of the east coast’s beauty – the Catskills, the Hudson River, and the Greenwich Shoreline (to name a few). She works part-time as a nanny and is able to take long weekends to head to various locations. She will do a series of paintings outside to get a feel for the location and then she’ll take those pieces back to studio to create paintings from them.
Following college, Jodie headed to Utah. Her job criteria was simple, she wanted to be somewhere beautiful where she could have free/subsidized housing and a job where she could work part-time, so she could spend the rest of her time painting. She found Bryce Canyon in Utah.
After Utah, Jodie moved to Colorado and found a job in outdoor education. This job also allowed her to have a few days at a time to travel to other parts of the state. She fell in love with the Garden of the Gods just outside of Colorado Springs.
As Jodie herself said, she “can’t imagine settling down” and has plans to go and find new landscapes. She will be staying in New York until next year, though she will be back in Utah for the Escalante Canyons Art Festival. Also on her list: Alaska, Glacier National Park, Yosemite, and the Pacific Northwest.
Jodie’s Advice for Art Students: “One of the best things I learned from my art education is to not be afraid. There were class periods when students would be so caught up in every little detail of the human figure or still life that the overall composition was never completed. My teacher would come in and STEP ON a piece of drawing paper and tell us to not be intimidated by the blank paper or the subject matter. With that, I learned to work loosely finding the forms and to see how they related to each other. Finally, I’ll add the details, when needed.”
To see more of Jodie’s work or to contact her directly: http://jodieleemaurer.wix.com/art