April Artist of the Month
Meet Jodi Traub
Jodi Traub recalls a few early art memories. When her uncle lived with her family for a while he painted and allowed her to watch if she “was quiet,” and she was up to the task of sitting and watching for hours. At a very young age, her teacher called her parents to say that she was very talented at drawing. When her family moved from the North Shore of Massachusetts to Southern Florida, her mother found her an art teacher to ease the disappointment of an early teenage relocation. Art has always been a refuge for Traub who came back to the Boston area to attend Brandeis University where she received a BA in Fine Arts and Education.
There were few jobs to be found in the early eighties when she graduated but she pounded the pavement with portfolio in hand and got her first job at a publishing house. The company paid for her to go to New England School of Art and Design and she became a graphic designer. She worked there for four years and then moved to Chicago and worked for a medical publisher. Upon returning to Massachusetts, she worked for Simon and Schuster -Silver Burdett and Ginn (a children’s division in Needham) where she did book design for ten years. She and her husband were beginning their family and Traub, never one to sit still, started working freelance. While her children were young, she designed an educational game called Stargo, “Bingo with the constellations,” which was signed to go to market on the day her third daughter was born. The game was sold in Learningsmith and museums, including the Museum of Natural History in NY, until 9/11 and other unfortunate events happened.
A good friend of the artist asked Traub to help her with her invitation business and eventually decided to give her the business. Traub’s talent and warm personality led to her being constantly asked to expand her horizons. From the invitation business, she has now developed a very busy (until COVID) event planning business JD Invites/Joyous Occasions). She will also be involved in planning the wedding of her own daughter in September 2022. Painting will always be her first love, a place where she finds peace and inspiration. The pandemic has allowed me more opportunities to paint and has been the “silver
lining” during these troubling times. I am grateful for the art teachers, artist friends and associations that have always inspired me to do my best work.
When she wasn’t working or being a mom, Traub took classes with artist Susan Kelley after attending a Plein Air workshop. Dramatic colors found in nature serve as the inspiration for her rich pastels and oil paintings. She has always set aside at least one morning a week to paint. Kelley remains a very important mentor and, during the pandemic, Traub had Susan hold class in her garage providing space heaters until Thanksgiving. She has also studied with David Curtis and has recently done classes on Zoom with Eli Cedrone and currently with Vincent Crotty.
She has had her work represented in L’attitude Gallery on Newbury Street (now in the South End of Boston) and at The Green Heron Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine until it closed due to COVID. She had her work accepted into a corporate installation at Milton Hospital. She has won numerous awards and done many one person and group exhibitions, including juried shows. She is a member of the WSA, where she reviews new members’ entries and works on exhibitions. She was a featured artist on “Art Beat,” a local show for Cable TV. For Traub the silver lining of the pandemic was that she has had more time to paint: “It’s my peace, my time for me. I don’t think of anything else when I’m painting…It’s the thing I look forward to most each day.” Her work has been described as peaceful and she hopes that her paintings bring a sense of serenity to the viewer.
