Jodi Hills

So this is who I am – a writer that paints, a painter that writes…


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The mother tongue.

Some days it took as little as wearing an LBD to feel like a superhero. While some may write this off as shallow, I say it is the brilliant understanding of your own power. Finding it wherever you can.

It’s no mistake that my mother found it in her lipstick. I continued her evangelism in a book and on my face. Going to the Sephora here in France yesterday, I asked for assistance, and while she helped me in French, we both knew we were speaking the same language — The mother tongue. And it being one of those days, many applications were required.

In full make-up and my apron (a nod, I suppose, to both my mother and grandmother), I went to the studio to paint. Completing this study in oils, the last thing was to give her clothing. I had already supplied her with the rouge, but just to be sure, I painted a little black dress. And in saving her, I more than saved myself. 


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Little puffs.

I’m working on a new portrait. The main character is in a crowded city, so the amount of detail is extraordinary. People, buildings, reflections, restaurants. After working for hours, one’s eyes can begin to play tricks. Everything becomes just shapes. It’s hard to differentiate one from another. It’s then that I have to take a photo and regard the image as a whole. I was struggling the other day because I was working on a woman in the background — there were so many shaded lines to her jacket. My hand was going through the motions, but it wasn’t quite making sense. After I took the photo, it was so clear. “Oh, it’s a puffer jacket!” It was no longer a problem at all, only puffs — light and pillowy puffs.

I’m not proud of it, but I can get caught up in the details in real life as well. The he saids and she dids of it all. The monotonous shapes of discontent. I remind myself again, as if it were the first time, and then once again — Step back! “Look,” I tell my heart, it’s only little puffs, you can handle that, you can handle this.”

I suppose it may sound silly, but most of the time, that’s my goal, to get there — where my problems turn into puffs. Today, may I, we, step back for a minute, and all find the way.