Jody Uttal works in a variety of art media exploring imagery that is both formal as well as intimate. She 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.”
Jody Uttal’s series, Concurrences, is inspired in part by early 20th century Finnish textiles and woven works of Bauhaus artist Anni Albers. Agnes Martin’s grid paining are also an influence, particularly the depth she achieves with what appears to be a simple grid. In each piece Uttal 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. Other recent series, “Concurrences/Recurrences”, “Elemental”, “Prayer Rugs” and “Topographies”, all spring from that same inspiration.
Uttal has published and created several books that combine text and imagery. MOM was painted after her mother’s death. PAINTED PRAYERS, which followed MOM, included original paintings responding to found text, poems, and her writings. It was published by TALLFELLOW PRESS in 2002 and was awarded the NAUTILUS AWARD honoring “distinguished literary contribution to conscious living and positive social change.”
Uttal studied fine art, painting and printmaking at Cornell University from which she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She continued her art studies at the New York Studio School, and New York’s School of Visual Arts. Uttal’s artwork 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 included in private collections in New York, East Hampton and Los Angeles.
She resides in Los Angeles and maintains a studio in Santa Monica.