J. Jordan Bruns is currently the artist in residence at The Yellow Barn Studio in Maryland’s Glen Echo Park. In the turret of the Yellow Barn, Jordan occupies two floors where he produces bright, architecturally inspired abstractions and graphite drawings. I had a chance to visit Jordan last week.

As a child Jordan grew up in numerous American cities, following the career of his father who traveled the country opening hotels and restaurants. When I was a kid I did art like any other kid – I made up cartoons, stories. I remember at a very young age, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade, we’d go to a restaurant where they’d cover the table with paper. My parents would be having a business meeting and I would just draw the entire time. When we left, I would leave my drawings on the table and the servers would take the drawings and put them up inside the kitchen. So the next time I’d come in they’d take my hand and bring me back there where they’d show me my drawings in the kitchen that all the servers would look at everyday. I think things like that influenced me to do things that please people and of course because I am teaching art now it feels like something I can be good at and that can make people happy.

We used to visit my aunt in the summers in Maine. She had a best friend who was a writer who had a book with beautiful graphite illustrations and no text. The idea was to create stories using the illustrations as a jump start to write. I really remember those illustrations and the interaction with writers at an early age actually influenced me to get a degree in illustration in college. I made characters in school that interacted with each other without using any words. That visual expression is all you really need to tell a story. My dad used to read a picture book called “Good Dog Carl” to me. But there were no words and my dad would create all the narration and it was really funny. When we’d get a book where there actually was text in it, I’d say “read if funny daddy” and we’d have to change all the stories and just use the illustrations –  tailor written stories just for me. My dad was really expressive with his face  and it was like theater for me.

Aside from book illustration the other big influence for Jordan as a child was Legos. And yes, if he has the opportunity to sit down with someone’s son or daughter to play with Legos, the invitation is still is completely attractive to him. I asked him what was it like to play with Legos as a kid?

Oh, well time stopped.
I always followed the instructions once and then of course the building would get demolished. It was fun to destroy things after I built them. Then I would rebuild them into new forms and it was my dream profession from ages 8-12 to work for Lego and design for them, because I felt my designs were better than theirs! I know there are artists now who use Legos as their primary medium.

Gray, Legos, 45″ x 45″ x 15″ by  Nathan Sawaya

We know Legos were made to build and destroy and rebuild and I think that kind of idea is prevalent today in my own creative process. You build and destroy since you still have the building blocks to create something. It’s like when the Romans designed with beautiful stone blocks to build their buildings which were destroyed in war, they would reuse those same blocks to build cathedrals. I think that idea became more important to me due to all those countless hours sifting through Legos and seeing what was useful or not useful – building my structure and then becoming interested in something else so I would destroy that first structure, take the pieces and then build something else.

Swerve, graphite on paper, 42″ x 42″

Conch, mixed media on panel, 24″ x 24″

It is easy to see how those three dimensional design experiences with Legos are actually a very important part of Jordan’s art which is two dimensional. In addition to the subject matter which is often based on structure, Jordan’s drawings and paintings are all about actual building and rebuilding. Graphite drawings are made through a reduction method using an eraser (destruction) and built up again with pencil (construction). His painting process is another example of this, in reverse. Starting with a chaotic approach, he allows the paint to move around using mediums that flow so freely they are difficult to control. Later he will come back to the painting with a brush to realize new forms that have already been implied abstractly.

I like the idea that art can be about more than one thing, like architecture that is functional but is also visually exciting, different. There is chaos, there is order, but with a distinct harmony present.

See more art by J.Jordan Bruns at his website: www.jjbruns.com