Wisconsin Life

[joyful jazz music] - Jerry Jordan: I like that feeling of working with the paint.

It's almost therapeutic 'cause you're mixing the paint, and you're taking your pallet knife, and you're mixing.

You're kind of lost in what you're doing.

It's like a meditation.

I always wanted to be an artist, but society and everyone's telling you that, "You can't be an artist.

You're going to be a starving artist."

That sort of thing.

I decided about 12 years ago that I was going to pursue this with everything I have to put in the time and to learn the craft of painting.

My name is Jerry Jordan, and I am a painter.

Most of my subject matter is of the Black experience and that's because I'm Black and that has been my experience.

And my experiences and my community's experiences have not really been seen in the art world.

That's actually my wife in the portrait.

And wearing the armor, just the armor that you need to go out into the world every day, that we all wear every day.

You get up, you put on your armor, your protection, to go out into the world.

Well, as an African American, you need that even more.

And she's in the water.

The water has memory.

A lot of societies or cultures consider water a source of memory, the memory and healing.

A lot of the paintings are in... situated in fields, open fields, broad open fields.

To me, that symbolizes opportunity and freedom and being free to be who you want to be.

And that also includes sometimes fantasy.

Things are, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be real.

Just like a song... You listen to the lyrics of a lot of songs.

It doesn't really make a lot of sense, but, you know, you get that feeling.

The feeling comes across, and you know you love the song.

And that's how I look at my paintings.

[upbeat jazz] As an illustrator, I'm one of a few that are working in oil.

I've recently finished a book called Ida B.

Wells Marches for the Vote.

The book is about Ida B.

Wells and her journey in the suffragette movement.

Some didn't want the African American women to be in it at all.

But the Black suffragettes refused to go away.

They were determined to be a part of it.

On the next book, I just finished up the artwork for it.

I'm really excited.

It is the unstoppable John Lewis.

Doing these historical children's books are important because when I was a kid, I was not exposed to this.

I knew nothing about African American history.

So, when I'm doing these paintings, I want the little kid, regardless of color, to look at it, get lost in the book, and, of course, they're learning as they go.

This book means a lot to me because it validated that I was going down the right path of pursuing painting and really working at it and honing my craft.

So, this can be done.

This can actually be done.

Because if you put in the time, you will be able to succeed.