Jody Uttal has long worked in watercolor, a medium she is drawn to for its immediacy and transparency. She sees herself as engaging with the paint, which can become temperamental and unforgiving. “Watercolor has a life of its own,” she comments. “At its best, it has a lightness and immediacy that can’t be achieved with any other medium. Every brushstroke is different. You can’t completely control it, and sometimes you have to put a painting aside and move on.”
Uttal’s series, Concurrences, is inspired in part by early 20th century Finnish textiles and woven works of Bauhaus artist Anna Albers, as well as Agnes Martin’s drawings. Each piece begins with a freehand painted grid, usually of a single color. In a process Uttal describes as both meditative and obsessive, sections of the paintings unfold for her, square by square over several weeks.
Her other recent series, “Concurrences/Recurrences”, “Elemental”, “Prayer Rugs” and “Topographies”, all spring from that same inspiration.
Uttal also has a practice of book making. The images are personal, and come from an interior space. “Mom Paintings” were painted after her mother’s death. “Painted Prayers”, published by Tallfellow Press, was developed from the initial “Mom Paintings.” It was awarded the distinguished Nautilus Award honoring “distinguished literary contribution to conscious living and positive social change.”
The “Trauma Paintings” were created during a period of deep inner work.
Jody Uttal studied fine art, painting and printmaking at Cornell University from which she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She continued her studies at the New York Studio School, and New York’s School of Visual Arts.
Uttal’s work has been exhibited at numerous art fairs around the country including Art on Paper in New York. She has shown work at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York, and at BooHooray in Montauk, New York. Her work is in private collections in New York, East Hampton and Los Angeles.
She resides in Los Angeles.