As we sit across from each other at a small table in the upstairs of the bowld, sophomore art major Jamie Hodge describes her hectic day. Her short blonde hair is pulled back in a low ponytail, and it’s just wavy enough that the small pieces outside the ponytail curl perfectly around her face. She had to go volunteer somewhere for a class today but used the wrong address the first time. She ended up driving over an hour to get there, she tells me, yelling over the noise of people playing basketball downstairs.
She doesn’t seem at all frustrated about today’s mishap. “It’s okay because I got to talk to a homeless guy for like an hour so that was cool,” she replied.
She may seem like just another student at first but there’s a part of her life that not everyone sees. Jamie spends many late nights in the PAC working on art projects at which passersby may never even give a second glance.
Jamie is an art major, but that hasn’t always been the case. She grew up in a really tiny town and, as a result, wasn’t familiar with art. When she came to Union, one of her roommates was an art major. At first she just tried it out, adding art as her minor. But by the end of the year it was her art major. This was an exciting step for her but also a scary one. Jamie didn’t know where to start. Beyond small high school projects, she had no experience. Stepping into the world of art was a step of faith for Jamie, primarily because she never thought that someone could make a living at it.
“I’ve always thought about beauty in the world but now I have a place to explore that in the way I’ve always wanted to,” Jamie said. She smiles and looks away at nothing in particular.
Haelim Allen, an associate professor of art at Union, taught Jamie in her 2D art class this year. Allen says that Jamie is very meticulous in what she does and that she particularly likes to explore the use of colors in her paintings.
“It’s really a joy to see her celebrate the gifts God has given her in her appreciation and wonder of colors,” Allen said. “It is a joy to have her in the department.”
Jamie likes to do more 3D work – sculpture and ceramics – than anything else.
One of the biggest projects she was a part of took place recently all over campus. The subject was “the beauty of a line.” For this project, Jamie tied together thin strips of tarp and tied the long tarp between two trees across the great lawn.
Jamie said that is was fascinating to see how it would blow in the wind because of how far it was stretched across. So many people noticed this series of projects because they were so large and obvious across campus, but the truth is, most of the art students’ projects are all over campus all the time. People just don’t notice them as much because they aren’t so big. Much of their work doesn’t even stay up for 24 hours.
“The work is so exhausting. It’s physical, emotional and spiritual work,” Jamie said. “You put all this work in and you want people to appreciate and understand it…On some level it’s hurtful to see people just walking by in the hallway. Like you can tell people don’t get it.”
If Jamie was an artist just for her own personal benefit it wouldn’t be worth it, it would be too hard, too much work for so little praise or recognition. The good news: Jamie isn’t an artist for her own benefit. She feels God’s calling on her life to be an artist. She finds the motivation to continue working on her art because she knows that this is God’s will for her life.
She starts to tell me that she never realized before how public art is. “When you make art it’s really personal, you forget others won’t have the connection you have to it,” Jamie said. “But it pays off if even one person gets it, if they see the beauty in it for even a second.”
This concept was extremely applicable to her art project that involved a loaf of bread and flowers. She said that she was trying to draw a connection between the flour that is used to bake bread and the flowers that she put on the bread.
“The night before that critique I was on a ladder in the PAC hanging bread from the ceiling questioning my life like ‘How did I get here?’ ‘Why am I in this situation?’”
It’s so hard to be passionate about something when there is always a looming possibility that no one will ever be as passionate about your art and what it means as you are. Art involves putting yourself out there for others to see and inevitably make a judgement of. This is a scary thing. When Jamie completes an art project in the PAC hallway she’s not just displaying the piece of art itself, she’s putting her interpretation of a concept on display. Her thoughts and ideas about a topic are no longer just her own, they are open for anyone to take in and consider.
Like many things, being an artist is full of uncertainties: about the future, about being successful enough at it to make a living, about being vulnerable, about reaching people through your art. But these things are all worth it at the end of the day in Jamie’s opinion.
“I’ve fallen more in love with art over the last year, and I feel very sure I want to be an artist. God is really pushing me here. This is how I want to love Him.”
The work is time-consuming as well as physically and emotionally taxing. It takes persistence, faith and strength to be successful. These are all things Jamie is learning as she invests herself in her art. It’s not easy, and much of her work may go unnoticed or misunderstood. But this is her calling, this is how she wants to glorify God. And for Jamie, that’s enough.
