We recently connected with Jodi Minnis and have shared our conversation below.

Jodi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My parents, Erica and Anton, are creative individuals, and they surrounded themselves with other creatives and artists. My mother, who is professionally an architect, drew paper dolls with me and always urged us to use our imaginations. My father, who is professionally a barber, modeled from time to time and filled our home with good music. I was raised understanding that creative expression was necessary and that understanding was fostered by my parents. When I was nine years old, my mother took my brothers and I to an opening at our National Art Gallery to support her coworker who was an exhibiting artist. I was in awe of the diversity of mediums and overwhelmed by the magnitude of some of the works. I remember being filled and curious, and my childish arrogance translated that to me telling my mom, “I could do that!” She replied, “Do it”. I took that personally and that set out to be an artist.

Jodi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My introduction to visual art was through my mom. She took art classes in college, but ended up moving in the direction of architecture. We would make paper dolls together and this incited my love for drawing. In the Bahamas, her and my father were great friends with artists of all disciplines so I thought it “right” to be a creative individual and to surround myself with cultural expression.

While being a visual artist is my primary approach, I consider myself to be a cultural worker. My visual art centers and investigates race, class and gender in The Bahamas. I work with a myriad of mediums that range from drawing to painting to performance and sculpture. This expression has allowed me to exhibit in spaces in The Bahamas, Aruba, and even in Australia. My work follows a tradition of Bahamian women artists and art administrators who look at the archives and have research based practices.

My curatorial practice is still crafting and evolving into something definitive, but it revolves around contemporary Caribbean art. I work at TERN Gallery which is a contemporary art gallery based in The Bahamas which represents Bahamian and Caribbean artists. Here, I am able to curate exhibitions that thematically range from notions of identity and heritage to exhibitions that center the work of emerging artists. Lastly, my writing is an extension of my curatorial practice. All of these facets also allow me to collaborate, to conceptualize and to execute pretty cool experiences with other creatives living and working within The Bahamas.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing younger artists investigate the work and form opinions on it. To form an opinion, you have to truly engage with what’s in front of you. You dissect it and consider it in the context of what you and are also confronted with what you don’t know, and in the intersection of all of that, you can decide whether you “like it” or “dislike it”. I believe that that simple act is paramount, and that is enough for me.

The like will either move you to try to emulate it or to share it. Or the dislike will move you to do your best not to replicate what. you saw and in that you form new modes of making and intentional modes of making.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that I knew about grants earlier in my creative journey. I would have taken more grant writing courses and honed that skilled more.
Being able to write about your practice and to form relationships with institutions through grant writing is a skill worth having. It can help to alleviate the financial pressure for larger projects and allow more space for experimentation.
I also wish that I took advantage of carpentry courses and other trades like metal working. There is a lot of cost involved with fabrication, so to be able to cut the cost of labor would help.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jodiminnis.com
• Instagram: @jodiminnis
• Linkedin: Jodi Minnis

Image Credits
Jodi Minnis, Blair J Meadows