Jody Mantich/ Jodyann Art

Visual Art – Omaha

Jody Mantich grew up in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area and now has settled in Crescent, Iowa. Although she moved in an academic environment for most of her life, receiving a Masters in Forensic Science in 2011, she is a “self-taught” artist with no formal training. Painting for just the last seven years, she believes that finding her voice through creating has awakened and revived her soul. “The creative process for me is one that is both intuitive and emotional. Sitting at an empty canvas stirs me in a way that I wish everyone could experience. I start with no particular plans or visual aim. I rest my eyes on the blank canvas and slowly begin to lose myself in the stages of colors and texture. I am almost a bystander to an already fluid familiarity that can only be communicated through this process, just exactly the way it unfolds. I remain a happy hostage, documenting and photographing each stage of the process. I believe I’ve been drawn to these imprints or “feelings of a memory”, long before I’ve ever understood how to articulate what they were.”