About the Artist
David Jordan was born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. A United States Marine during the Vietnam era, he returned home in 1977 to study painting, sculpture, and printmaking at the University of Montevallo. He was awarded the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1980 and, since that time, has done graduate work at several American universities and traveled throughout Europe.
This artist cites French neoclassicist and “painter of light” Eugène Delacroix as his earliest influence. However, his mature work is characterized by a fascination with the uniquely American and purely cultural resurrection of the public spirit associated with Jacob Lawrence and the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
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Mr. Jordan resides in Hoover, Alabama, and attends Faith Chapel Church. In the past, he taught art to young children in the Tuscaloosa public schools and was active in the Family and Community Violence Prevention Program at Stillman College. Today, he volunteers to support continuing adult education and Habitat for Humanity.
Artist's Statement
The real heroes in our society are those who manage to get up and go to work every day. People continue to gather in the city out of a basic need for civilization. Two- and three-dimensional art, poetry and prose, music, theater, and dance emerge from the community in response to this need. It is not just, nor wise, to promote any ideology that suggests the arts be limited to narrow arenas and elitist agendas. The true artists among us are teachers, mentors, and perhaps above all, a stabilizing workforce. We are the main propulsion system for urban culture.
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