Up in Portland, Maine, there's a street out on the edge of town (cue Springsteen tune) called Marginal Way. Living there almost two years as a student, artist Jodie Mim Goodnough was always intrigued by the fact that the street never felt defined, though it is wedged between a gorgeous downtown and a major highway. “It feels very industrial in that trucks are always parking there so the drivers can sleep,” says Goodnough. “At the same time, they're building it up and trying to make the space more people-friendly.”
The people in her pictorial exhibit, Marginal Ways, are on the edge of town, so to speak. In fact, two of the stories in her current exhibition, showing at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster, are from her time spent in Portland.
The piece “Sisters” is about the Catholic sisterhood, specifically targeting a small group of them living in a Maine convent. “All four women currently living in the house joined the Sisterhood when they were young women,” she says. “It was pretty regularly considered an option back then. But these days, their numbers are dwindling, and the women are aging.” In the midst of all this, explains Goodnough, was Ann, a graphic designer in her mid-40s that worked at the Maine Medical Center. “She was making public the fact that she was seriously considering joining the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Portland,” says Goodnough. “It was an experience so far from my own, but I found myself really loving these women. They were so funny. They opened up their lives to me for a couple of months so I could try to tell the story of the Sisterhood. Really amazing.”
“The Family Business” threw Goodnough into the unfamiliar world of harness racing, using subjects The Switzer family to capture “sport” (though many animal advocates take objection to this being called a sport). Another piece in the exhibit is “Operation Footprint,” which is based on her aunt heading to Honduras every year to help organize a medical brigade. With Rotary International, Mending Kids International, Hospital San Felipe and a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers, US surgeons head down once a year for a week. “When I tell people about this brigade,” she says, “they always ask why there are so many kids in Honduras with club foot. As far as doctors can figure, though, there are no more born there than anywhere else. It's strictly a financial issue.”
For Goodnough, photography is often about digging beyond initial impressions and perceptions about people and life, and she agrees that taking pictures is a unique way of doing so. “We all judge too quickly when we meet people, myself included,” she says. “I actually use experiences like the stories I've worked on to remind myself how wrong I can be. It's hard to see people as individuals every single time you meet someone. It's much easier to put them in a group and dismiss them. But if I'd done that, I would have missed out on some pretty amazing experiences.”
Goodnough describes herself as “a photographer and assemblage artist who focuses on the unknown, but extraordinary members of our society,” and works out of her studio in Providence, Rhode Island. When asked what it means to be an “assemblage artist,” she says, “Sounds fancy, doesn't it? To me, it just means that while I'm not classically trained in sculpture, I have this weird need to make three dimensional 'stuff.' I get an idea in my head and then gather what I need to create it. It means lots of money spent on weird things. My studio looks like a crazy person works there. Next to the tripod and cameras are Styrofoam wig heads, stacks of fabric, plastic flowers, empty pill cases and all sorts of stuff.”
Her next exhibit, she hopes, will concentrate on mental illness and the stigma that is often attached to it. Diagnosed with bipolar at age 20, as were her mother and grandmother, she's resisted dealing with this in her art for some time out of a fear of being stereotyped as an outside artist. Still, Goodnough insists her experience with this illness is unique, and not at all what people might expect. Well educated, successful, friendly and social, she also has a close, supportive family. People generally consider her to be happy and interesting. But...she also happens to be bipolar. “So the work I'm creating now,” she says, “has to do with division between our public and private lives, especially people dealing with mental illness.”
Marginal Ways is at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster through the end of January, 2009. It is her first Massachusetts exhibit.
The people in her pictorial exhibit, Marginal Ways, are on the edge of town, so to speak. In fact, two of the stories in her current exhibition, showing at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster, are from her time spent in Portland.
The piece “Sisters” is about the Catholic sisterhood, specifically targeting a small group of them living in a Maine convent. “All four women currently living in the house joined the Sisterhood when they were young women,” she says. “It was pretty regularly considered an option back then. But these days, their numbers are dwindling, and the women are aging.” In the midst of all this, explains Goodnough, was Ann, a graphic designer in her mid-40s that worked at the Maine Medical Center. “She was making public the fact that she was seriously considering joining the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Portland,” says Goodnough. “It was an experience so far from my own, but I found myself really loving these women. They were so funny. They opened up their lives to me for a couple of months so I could try to tell the story of the Sisterhood. Really amazing.”
“The Family Business” threw Goodnough into the unfamiliar world of harness racing, using subjects The Switzer family to capture “sport” (though many animal advocates take objection to this being called a sport). Another piece in the exhibit is “Operation Footprint,” which is based on her aunt heading to Honduras every year to help organize a medical brigade. With Rotary International, Mending Kids International, Hospital San Felipe and a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers, US surgeons head down once a year for a week. “When I tell people about this brigade,” she says, “they always ask why there are so many kids in Honduras with club foot. As far as doctors can figure, though, there are no more born there than anywhere else. It's strictly a financial issue.”
For Goodnough, photography is often about digging beyond initial impressions and perceptions about people and life, and she agrees that taking pictures is a unique way of doing so. “We all judge too quickly when we meet people, myself included,” she says. “I actually use experiences like the stories I've worked on to remind myself how wrong I can be. It's hard to see people as individuals every single time you meet someone. It's much easier to put them in a group and dismiss them. But if I'd done that, I would have missed out on some pretty amazing experiences.”
Goodnough describes herself as “a photographer and assemblage artist who focuses on the unknown, but extraordinary members of our society,” and works out of her studio in Providence, Rhode Island. When asked what it means to be an “assemblage artist,” she says, “Sounds fancy, doesn't it? To me, it just means that while I'm not classically trained in sculpture, I have this weird need to make three dimensional 'stuff.' I get an idea in my head and then gather what I need to create it. It means lots of money spent on weird things. My studio looks like a crazy person works there. Next to the tripod and cameras are Styrofoam wig heads, stacks of fabric, plastic flowers, empty pill cases and all sorts of stuff.”
Her next exhibit, she hopes, will concentrate on mental illness and the stigma that is often attached to it. Diagnosed with bipolar at age 20, as were her mother and grandmother, she's resisted dealing with this in her art for some time out of a fear of being stereotyped as an outside artist. Still, Goodnough insists her experience with this illness is unique, and not at all what people might expect. Well educated, successful, friendly and social, she also has a close, supportive family. People generally consider her to be happy and interesting. But...she also happens to be bipolar. “So the work I'm creating now,” she says, “has to do with division between our public and private lives, especially people dealing with mental illness.”
Marginal Ways is at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster through the end of January, 2009. It is her first Massachusetts exhibit.
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