Artwork copyright Shelley Jordon. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Comice Pears & Mt St Helens, 1996

Shelley Jordon
(American, born 1954)

Location: Department of Licensing - Vancouver Branch, Vancouver

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Comice Pears & Mt St Helens is a still-life painting by artist Shelley Jordon. It is part of a body of work that explores the changing Northwest landscape and the "power and beauty of domestic spaces and objects." Jordon's painted still life objects communicate through a window with typical urban or natural Northwest landscapes -- of forests, shipyards, mountains, and more. These background landscapes make the universal objects specific to the Northwest.

Jordon paints in natural light, directly from life. Light is the force that brings the still life objects to life, but too much light can also destroy the objects by turning them into abstract shapes of color and pattern.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Licensing.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Portland, Oregon-based artist and teacher Shelley Jordon creates still-life, landscape, and narrative paintings as well as animations and video installations. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City and Brooklyn College, where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree, Jordon is a professor of art at Oregon State University.