Art & Culture

Crossing Categories

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By Susanne Katz

Jodi Hersh creates photographs that include textural, close-up, abstract images of buildings and other everyday objects.

Art Is All Around You is the title of a museum publication I wrote in the '90s. Even though we look, we don't always see what is really there. Sometimes it is worth taking a closer look. One recent Sunday at Piedmont Park, I went to browse the outdoor market, but I was glad I took the time to take a second look.

So, after the family Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner, services at Temple Sinai, and all the various New Year's celebrations with friends, it was time to get outside and enjoy the Atlanta Arts Festival. As advertised, 200 artists participated in the juried fine art and fine craft show, resulting in a surprising mix of thoughtful new works and quality craftsmanship, along with a variety of folks who are festival veterans.

Jodi Hersh was busy speaking to visitors and introducing them to her artwork.

"I work from my studio in Decatur," I heard her speaking with a potential buyer. "I have a graphic design and Web development company, and as well, I produce photography that I hope people enjoy and want to own."

The photographs seemed textural, close-up, abstract images of buildings and other everyday structures.

Back in my office I visited Hersh's Web site, www.orangestar.com. This artist is active in many community projects including Atlantic Station, the music industry, and Jewish Family & Career Services programs. It seemed that Hersh's work was worth a second look, so I visited with her in her Decatur home and studio.

At Home in Decatur

"My work is about composition, texture and typography; abstracted images that look a little like paintings; people have a tactile reaction to my artwork," Hersh says. "They want to touch them." Preferring a boxlike composition rather than the traditional frame, Hersh builds the boxes by hand, painting the edges and gluing the print to the surface. She then applies an acrylic matte gel medium to the print that protects it and gives the print a matte, textural surface.

"The process," the artist explains, "reinforces the resemblance of these images to paintings."

Starting with film and then switching to digital, the artist explains that these are not inkjet prints, and there is no manipulation of the images. The small prints are dye sublimations, and the large prints are true color prints on Fuji crystal archive paper.

"Usually the title of any of my photographs is the location." A black-and-white image was shot at La Guardia Place in New York City, near Union Square. Yellow Star was taken in Decatur near North Druid Hills Road. "I like to get up close to things that might be considered eyesores, like power poles and boarded-up storefronts."

The photographs are produced in a limited series of 25 and priced from $45 to $900.

Looking at Atlanta

But looking at Hersh's photographs was just the beginning. This graphic-design-major-turned-entrepreneur can be found in some surprising places. For the past couple of years, Hersh has designed, built and maintained the Atlantic Station Web site and produces much of its graphics.

Traveling to the other side of town, Hersh is documenting the Streets of Buckhead for the Buckhead Village redevelopment project by Ben Carter Properties. According to Steven Cadranel, president of Ben Carter Properties, "Buckhead Village enjoys a deep and colorful history; we wanted to capture that feeling for all time by returning it to its former richness. The Streets of Buckhead will be transformed into one of the most luxurious shopping, dining, living and hotel districts in America."

The photo series will be a documentary beginning with pre-demolition and going through the 2009 opening. The artist hopes this documentary will become a book with visuals from the artist's perspective.

"Stay tuned for more details," Hersh says.

A Fine Artist

Working with the merchandiser and screen printer, Hersh designed all of the concert shirts for STYX.

"I love the nostalgia and look at this as designs that become fabric of our lives," she says. "It is just a great feeling when I see fans wearing T-shirts I designed."

Having designed signage and graphics for Universal Studios and working as an art director in a printing company, this artist is at once at home designing CD covers or entering the Inman Park, Decatur and Atlanta Arts festivals.

"My work crosses category boundaries," she says. "I have been referred to as a photographer/digital artist, and as a mixed media artist or a graphic designer. I prefer to just be known as a fine artist."

Susanne Katz curates art and sits on the board of the Marcus JCC. She writes monthly about art for Julep.

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