It
was on a tree-lined street in
his hometown of Brooklyn, New
York,
where John Cody first encountered
a large and colorful moth from
the saturniid family.
He was five years old. He still
recalls in detail that magical
moment,
which would launch a lifelong
interest and ultimately become
what he calls his
true vocation: painting moths.
Dr.
Cody began sketching scenes from
nature when he was eight years
old
and later began a professional
art career as a medical illustrator.
He went on to
medical school and became a renowned
psychiatrist, practicing for more
than twenty-five years, something
he says he did, in part, so that
he could afford
to paint. A fellow psychiatrist
called Dr. Cody "a rare avis,
one of the most
truly creative and original human
beings I've ever met."
Ultimately,
his fascination with moths and
remarkable artistic talent
came together to produce his celebrated
paintings of moths. Indeed, he
is now
revered as "The Audubon of
Moths."
Dr.
Cody's numerous exhibitions have
included one-man shows at such
sites
as the American Museum of Natural
History in New York and the Smithsonian
in
Washington, D.C. He holds top
honors from a myriad of organizations
and
publications, from Audubon Magazine
to the Association of Medical
Illustrators.
John received the Governor's Arts
Award in 1997 for Individual Artist
Lifetime
Achievement Award in the State
of Kansas.
An
authority on the poet Emily Dickinson,
he has written biographies of
her
and of Richard Wagner. He has
also co-authored a biography of
the famous medical
artist Max Brodel, as well as
published books on art anatomy.
He has written
dozens of articles and papers
on subjects ranging from painting,
medical illustration,
psychiatry, and entomology. John
Cody lives with his wife, Dorothy,
in Hays,
Kansas. They have three children:
Loren, Andrea, and Graham.
