Drew Jordan experience by Brent Rakus

                                    
    While walking through our own Mitchell Hall I immediately dropped my bucket of jolting metal and sped to the McKinney gallery.  This draw was to the hemorrhaging serpent like metal construction, seemingly bursting through the wall.  The work’s name, “Inflection”, the sculptor, Drew Jordan.  “Inflection” consisted of spiraling aluminum and brass that slipped right up to two well-placed mirrors on each end of the sculpture.  This mirroring effect doubled the space, and completed the sleek lines of this design.  It almost gave me a frightening emotion, most likely from years of watching movies of artificially intelligent robots taking over the world!  Upon closer inspection, the true talent and  workmanship of Jordan’s metal working created a flawless almost surreal nature to the piece.  I thought to myself, “This would be a good moment to move away before this thing starts moving on its own.”  Incredible.
    While making my way around the gallery, it became apparent that Jordan’s diligence in his studio practice could be seen in a wide variety of mixed media.  Free-flowing objects of wood and metal created harmonies lines that drew me in to each of Jordan’s pieces.  His technique of steaming wood to bend it, and later shaping the metal to it, manifested a feeling of unity and togetherness. The wonderment of two objects, so different in nature, portrayed as though they never were apart, intrigued me.  Jordan’s use of torn canvas painted red on his backgrounds pushed the dimension through contrast, and emphasized the negative space.  Again, interested in his construction, I noticed each one of these canvases was actually meticulously stitched in with metal wire.  Being in construction from early childhood and creating 3d mixed media myself, I was very inspired by the use of building materials, such as broken concrete.   I thought to myself, “Where could that have come from? What was its purpose? And why did it fail?”  I later found out Jordan shared some of these thoughts about the history of his found objects.  I needed to know more about this artist.
    Upon researching Jordan’s website I noticed some similarities.  He too went for his BFA right here at WCU, and worked in a metal shop like me to improve his skills.  Of course it was a more intense shop consisting of steel fabrication, torch cutting, and MIG/TIG welding.  Jordan worked his way up to foreman and gained permission to use the shop space and metal scraps to continue his passion for art.  Jordan later apprenticed under Kerry Rhoades owner of Forged Creations, a blacksmith shop in Delaware.  This led Jordan to open his own design build shop in Delaware called Jordan Sculptures.  I look forward to visiting his shop soon and seeing more of his amazing sculptures. Jordan’s work was definitely a big inspiration to me, I just hope I didn’t get too close and smudge his work with my nose. 

Dear Drew Jordan, please let me use some of your big bad boy tools--artist in crime Brent Rakus.