Jodi Rawson

Meet Jodi Rawson, painter

youtube.com/@jodirawson | jodisjournal.substack.com

From:
Sandpoint, ID

Medium:
Acrylic on anything

Images © Jodi Rawson. Reproduced by permission.

Q&A with Jodi Rawson

What inspired you to create this piece?
Anatomy Autonomy

Why is this movement important to you?
The Pro-Voice Project is pushing back against psychotic bullies in very graceful ways as well as offering safe and shame-free community for women.

What motivates you, or inspires your art?
Art is everywhere- I create to feel alive.

Any other interesting details you'd like to share?
Painting a variety of whimsical nudes helped me with my body dysphoria... we are all art, I realized.

Artist’s bio

Like so many, I was born an artist. However, I learned to please others with more "relevant" ambitions that had the potential to make money. High school and my limited college were spent with math and science, so I have had no formal training, and I have been called an outsider artist. I am as influenced by Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo as I am Banksy and all the creative, loud and beautiful advertisements of my formative years.

I doodled for decades in pencil until paint called me and made me feel that my mark was bold and permanent. Painting convinced me that art was life and so long as I was doing it I was an artist. With every medium I engage in- be it tattooing, writing, gardening, cooking, playing music, dancing, videography or acrylic on canvas- I am tapping in from a calling to heal and understand. Money has never been a factor in the equation (aside from a couple of pieces) and therefore I create art for the love of art alone. The root of my amateurism is amor, meaning "love," and I'm lucky to engage in whatever medium I choose each day.

The real drive that led me to stay up nights painting bold and bright nudes was that I had undiagnosed P.T.S.D. from getting drugged and raped at age 20. Counseling was not something that I was ready for until I was 37, so art was my therapy and essentially kept me alive. In 2017, I had a full solo show entitled "Whimsical Nudes", exploring the beauty and whimsy of the variety of nude human forms. There were recognizable famous people, as well as whimsical caricatures of fairies and mermaids. It was my way of battling dysphoria and finally being able to say, "I am art, and I am beautiful."

My rapist drilled into me that I was "disgusting" and "helpless" and art has helped me to overcome that lying shame and feel empowered, much like the Pro-Voice Project sharing abortion care stories on the stage. At a PVP workshop a couple years ago, I shared my history with abortion. At age 15, I debated with a girl in high school against abortion. Fast forward 5 years, I was downing an abortifacient with no debate or even a moment's hesitation when the pill was offered.

Thankfully, I was able to have children with my husband of nearly 22 years and there was a beautiful window focusing on having babies, breast feeding them, and keeping them safe- offering blissful focus away from my pain. In 2014, when my youngest was 6, I was drawn into the new world of painting by forces I cannot explain. I was so eager to learn skills as well as get the images I wanted to appear. Thankfully, my husband worked and supported my amateur passion in more ways than I can count. To this day, he offers the best perspective and encouragement with any of my art projects.

We moved to Sandpoint in 2007 because we wanted to raise our kids in symbiosis with clean air, water and the diversity of plants, fungi, and animals. For years, our kids were unscheduled and unschooled with nature and art supplies to fill their days and now they have moved on to work and college and cities. We miss them terribly now that we are empty nesting, but we are staying put because we have grown in symbiosis with our place in Sandpoint and we will likely die there. I am aware that "Idaho is Clitorally the worst" (a PVP sticker slogan) as far as women's rights and it is sickening to me that the laws of our state have made my child and so many others feel unsafe to live, so I am actively rooting for people who create safe spaces and bold platforms to voice activism. While I am neither called, nor equipped to do the work that Jen Jackson can do, I can get involved on the fringe.

When I was arguing against abortion when I was a freshman in high school, I was merely considering young "promiscuous" pregnant teens. I didn't consider that I would be raped, and I certainly didn't consider other stories, such as an elder mother who opted for abortion to prioritize her own health as well as the welfare of her children. I had a hysterectomy years ago, which greatly improved my physical strength and mental health, but if I hadn't and I got pregnant today, I would seek abortion care without question.

Some women are called at certain points in their lives to carry and care for children, but if they are not and are forced to, we are cursing her and her unborn baby to a sub-life. Ironically, those who are staunch about anti-abortion do not vote to fund programs for young mothers and babies, so we end up with those who are pressured to be mothers and are barely surviving and barely able to love their baby, which costs far more taxes down the road in hospital bills related to malnourishment and neglect, therapy and even prison.

The Pro-Voice Project is creating a safe place for people to share their abortion care stories without shame, and I believe in all that they are doing to raise awareness and shift political conversations. Sandpoint is now lacking medical services for women in general and nationally infant and maternal mortality statistics are getting worse each year since Roe vs. Wade got overturned. Abortion is healthcare.

The art that I have donated symbolizes the beauty and power and mystery of womanhood. I have no expectation of how it will be received because their creation gifted me with more than I could ask for. The therapy of painting these pieces reiterated how magical it is to be a woman, which is exactly what I needed during my menopause and the chronic misogynistic monarchy currently ruling over the planet. I hope the pieces sell for more money than I can afford to donate to PVP or I hope at least that the images warm you as they have me.

If you are interested in any custom art, I'll paint portraits, pussy cats, and anything whimsical on almost any surface. You can find me at:

jodisjournal.substack.com

youtube.com/@jodirawson