About
Jodi Reeb is a visual fine artist from Minneapolis specializing in Encaustic fine art, abstract paintings, mixed-media wall sculpture, contemporary landscapes, and botanical photo paintings for sale.
Moving between two and three-dimensional forms, I am constructing paintings and sculpture with repetition of forms and layer by layer. There are three main bodies of work I’m creating that are nature-inspired from landscapes, seed shapes and organic forms.
I am exploring the theme of nature’s cycles through photo-based paintings, circular wall installations and organic sculpture using steel wire and pleated aluminum. I am working to develop scale, geometry, spatial relationships, texture and color. These works embrace the textural properties of encaustic ((beeswax, pigment and damar resin) paintings and sculpture with translucency and dimensionality. Strong physical elements come from layering and repeating organic forms. Encaustic paint)
Taking photographs of pollinator friendly plants and landscapes allow me to raise awareness about the challenges pollinators face. These works juxtapose the graphic quality of a photograph with the softness of beeswax paint. These landscape-based works combine layers of translucent wax and oil paint with the graphic quality of photos printed on tissue paper.
The circular wall art installations refer to being grounded and centered, and the geometric wholeness of the tondo shape. The attraction for me is the negative space and installing them in collaboration with a space in any configuration. The form is pure and the paintings vary in size and color elevated off the wall, creating shadow and space.
The sculptures made of pleated aluminum or wire are organic forms created by bending and twisting individual elements to form a whole. The painted biomorphic sculptures are elevated off the wall to mimic the leaves on a tree or waves in the ocean. Depending on the color of the sculpture, the subject matter is open to interpretation. The rhythm and repetition found in nature is my goal in this new series. The visual form speaks to how it was made: pushing and pulling, folding and opening and evolving. The parts beginning to take form into something new and whole.
The process of change in nature is a constant source of wonder and inspiration that I mimic in my work through the combination of repetition of forms, translucency and texture. This process of change and transformation is supported by integrating many different media such as encaustic (molten beeswax), photo collage, aluminum and wire sculptures.
As a mixed-media artist, I create my art using encaustic (molten beeswax) and collage on various substrates such as wood, acrylic panels and paper. Primarily working on commission, I enjoy collaborating with clients to create artwork that leads me to the next step in the progression of my process and development while complementing an existing space. The focus of my artwork has always been about the beauty of nature and finding inspiration from the extraordinary colors and light. As I explore this idea, I have been intrigued with nature's ever-changing seasons. I often contemplate how nature relates to our cycles of existence.
In my recent series of circular paintings and encaustic with photo collage paintings, I use contrasting materials and substrates to create works that oscillate between painting and sculpture. I use solid substrates made of wood and circular acrylic panels using encaustic (beeswax) and acrylic paint as well as metallic paints that transform or react when combined. Combinations are discovered, explored, proposed, rejected and accepted as part of the art-making process. Components are moved around in varying compositions. Some paintings are created to be part of a series and some are partnered through discovery. Through this approach I discover relationships between the elements creating rhythms, patterns and visual textures that are nature-based as well as abstract. Over time, contrasting or common elements form connections, which is what I am really hoping to explore through this interaction.
I apply changes in texture and color by painting diverse surfaces with unusual materials such as beeswax and metallic paints that patina when they interact and create something new. I begin with a layer of paint or a structure, and from that point on, it becomes about process; making marks and textures, applying materials, responding to each action with a reaction. In this way, spontaneous connections are valued as highly as are planned compositions. As each work evolves, it gains an identity that eventually solves itself through process, positive and negative space and dimension.
Biography
Reeb received a BFA degree in Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, MCAD, where she instructed printmaking for over 9 years.
Jodi has been a full-time working artist creating paintings and sculpture and a teacher in Minneapolis for over 28 years. She has taught printmaking, acrylic and encaustic painting as well as book arts classes/workshops at colleges and art centers regionally and internationally. She has taught encaustic workshops at the Essence of Mulranny in Ireland, Zijidelings in Netherlands, Kunstfreiraum in Basel, Switzerland, and San Miguel De Allende. Nationally, she has taught workshops at Arrowmont School of Craft, Penland School of Art, Tubac Center for the Arts, Wild Rice Retreat and Haystack School of Art.
She has been an online video instructor with Painting with Fire for 4 years and has taught workshops at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusets for the past 7 years. She teaches monthly workshops in her NE Minneapolis studio and offers art study coaching to artists for professional development.