Meet Jodi Endicott

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jodi Endicott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jodi below.

Hi Jodi, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers.
So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

As I see it, art and resiliency follow the same process. Both get better with experience.

You just have to start.

Find whatever works and focus on that. Put the rest aside.

Stay honest and accept the pain that comes with letting go of what was once a good idea. That angst will soften with time as past lessons turn into newfound wisdom.

Dig in deep to discover where and how this new wisdom could lead to future success.

Embrace the flow that leads to what will become better.

Often, the part that was saved as it was working, just isn’t anymore. Let that go and keep trying. Something wonderful is on its way.

That’s the process of resilience.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

At this stage in my journey I am creating contemporary fossils out of our past desires and discards. As a materials person, I want these time capsules to reflect how we care or have failed to care for ourselves, each other and our world.

My early life held much brokenness. I became empowered when I tapped my creativity to reassemble society’s abandoned pieces. That approach carried me through some very tough personal and social dilemmas.

I found art and healing when I moved to Hawai’i. For over 35 years I have been an active member of my neighborhood and artist communities, raising a family and creating paintings, sculptures, and public art. Most of my work explores the relationship between human society and nature.

I seek to make sense of the world in which we live. Each piece or assemblage of pieces addresses a set of questions. Those questions lead to further dialogue for solutions within and beyond my communities.

I communicate through metaphors that spark conversation, thought, and oftentimes changes in human behavior. For example, my sculpture of a bus rider in downtown Honolulu brings people together in conversation and interaction. My series of paintings and sculpture installations on the stock market gets us talking about about money…how we make it, spend it and use it to do good. I am especially focused on money’s connection to—and influence on—the environment, as it was our money (in essence our time) that we spent on the plastics that now so drastically pollute the natural world and endanger us all with an unfair and heavy burden falling on indigenous societies.

Most recently, I have dedicated my much of my practice to create compelling marine life sculptures made of collected plastics from the remote Midway Atoll in Papahanaumokuakea. These far away plastics have floated the ocean for years and are now embedded in our marine life and food chain. Such plastics show the impact of our everyday behaviors on our global environment. Telling the story of the seriously impacted Monk Seals, Emperor Penguins and Polar Bears in life-size sculptures has expanded my work into environmental art installations, photographs and films. This powerful crossover of media allows me to express my concern for the enormous amounts of plastic waste fouling Hawaii’s beaches and ocean. It provides a forum to ask Where does it come from? Why does it exist? How do we take responsibility for this?

Ocean plastics came to the surface literally and figuratively for me over 25 years ago as I questioned what we are doing to ourselves and our future. Maybe it was the financial crisis or a pandemic. Maybe it was the speeding up of the news cycle and the seeming political chaos in our country. One way or another, plastics are everywhere. They are even in the tissues of our hearts. It’s another type of brokenness that will take all of us working together to fix.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities, skills or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey.

  1. Learning to see, really see, has been integral to success in my life as well as my art. That means getting down on your knees to see how gigantic the world is to a small child. Or visualizing someone else’s challenges and overlaying their story onto yours and mine to find a commonality.
  2. When faced with adversity, I try to remind myself that obstacles are only what I see when I lose sight of my goal. Then I ponder what I need to do to turn my frustration into motivation. Setbacks show me that things can change when I allow the creative process to happen, reassured that something wonderful is soon to emerge.
  3. Patience to evolve as a person, artist, friend, mother and wife. It’s the endless stream of life experiences, both positive and negative, that show you who you are, as well as who you want to be. That’s what leads one to discover what they have to offer the world.

Consider every setback as a lesson to learn resilience. Think of how the Grand Canyon started with just one water drop chipping away.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I want to stop plastics from entering our ocean environment by attaching value to these discarded single-use conveniences. I am committed to doing so by incorporating vintage marine debris in priceless artworks and 3-d printed editions of my originals. If a banana taped to wall is worthy of a such high value, then marine plastics are certainly destined to hold their value as well. After all, that banana is certain to decay, while, sadly, these plastics are set to last forever.

The biggest challenge to that goal is finding sponsorship and patronage to underwrite this mission to further ongoing advocacy, dialogue and policy development for a healthier world. Support is needed to present short-film documentaries at compelling public art installations to tell a visual story that will:

* Invoke an emotional response and dialogue in viewers that encourages them to share how they are breaking out of their plastic cocoon.

*. Create awareness of sustainable alternatives to reduce our use of throw-away plastics through presented interviews with environmental experts and advocates .

*. Prevent the flow of plastics into our environment by empowering us to follow and control the use of our money to find ways to reduce, reuse and replace as we are able.

Installations of these marine debris artworks are already attracting thousands of viewers in-person and virtually. Our reach will continue to grow as the plan evolves to ask viewers to pledge to not purchase or discard any new single-use plastics one day a month.

These life-size sculptures are being presented in conjunction with larger scale environmental happenings near popular landmarks in Hawai’i. Showcasing artworks made from marine debris in film is a powerful forum for opening minds, touching hearts and changing our plastic behaviors. Turning ocean plastics into marine life sculptures in such public installations gives nature a voice and empowers all of us on local, national, and international fronts.

My challenge is to find ways for these environmental art works to be self-sustaining.

I am committed to elevating this purpose together with aligned sponsors to further ongoing advocacy, dialogue, and policy development for a healthier world.

The time to do this is now. Let’s find the best way to be change makers together.

With creativity and aloha,

Jodi Endicott

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Jodi Endicott Kevin Banes –photo of me on beach with Penguins Tadia Rice and Jodi Endicott stacked seal, polar bear and penguin

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