Jodi Hills

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


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Perspective

Simply by the title of his show alone — Perspective should be reversed —  I think I have my memories in the right place. Staying with dear friends, we went to see the David Hockney collection at the Palm Springs Art Museum. I love his art. I always have, but being there, with them, is what remains in my heart’s permanent collection. Experiencing it together, rather than the art itself — my reverse perspective. 

Passing this week, he fills the internet. He once said, “It’s the very process of looking at something that makes it beautiful.” And we did look. We looked at it together. We looked at it with eyes of France. With memories of Chicago. With collective music humming in our heads. With “remember when”s and “I can’t wait for”s swirling in our midst. And isn’t that what art is, what music is, what friendship is — all that color.

When I painted Margaux from her balcony in Marseille, I suppose I wanted to see what she saw. I wanted, want, her to see me, seeing her, seeing out there. I want her to know that it is indeed the very process of looking that makes it beautiful. It is. She is. 

It’s all I have to bring today. These colors of friends and family. This thought that maybe if we experience this world together, it may be just a bit more beautiful. That’s my perspective. 


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Closer.

We went to see the new David Hockney exhibit in Palm Springs. In his late eighties he has created all new works, using mostly his iPad. He is also exploring something he calls reverse perspective.

I could spend a lot of time talking about the vibrant colors. The scale. But it is the perspective that interests me the most. (Or the least, perhaps).

I was in my first year of college, in my first formal art class. The professor gave us an assignment on perspective. I went home for the weekend to see my mother. I sat at the end of her small apartment hallway. I drew what I saw. 

Maybe it was because my world was just opening. A new city. A new life with books and people and wonder. Everything was changing. As I feared, as I wanted. I held up my small drawing. The boy in the back shouted, “It’s completely backwards.” Others shook their heads. Agreed. One even laughed. I was a bit shocked. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I held my breath. The teacher shushed the class. She asked me simply, quietly, in a way that sounded curious, not accusatory, “Why did you draw it that way?” I whispered, “That’s what I saw.” She smiled, and hung it on the wall.

David Hockney is quoted as saying, “To hell with the idea of a single vanishing point.” How exciting! Thrilling even! To paint without rules, simply to get closer and closer to the things I care about. I suppose that’s not just the way I want to paint, but the way I want to live.