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<\/a>Teresa Jordan\u2019s newest book,\u00a0The Year of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off)<\/em>, is, first of all, a collection of essays, beautifully woven together by a theme inspired by Benjamin Franklin. Just as Franklin sought to live his life according to those virtues he deemed important to living well, Jordan explores, with well-documented research and personal stories, what mindful attention to both virtues and vices may mean in one\u2019s life. Rave reviews from local and national media,\u00a0as well as 15 Bytes, might be enough to recommend the book (in fact, the first edition sold out). But for artists, I\u2019d like to suggest another reason to pick up this book, as well as others in Jordan\u2019s list of published works.<\/p>\nYou see, Jordan not only tells stories with words, but uses her own visual art to enrich the reader\u2019s experience. \u00a0In her\u00a0Field Notes from the Grand Canyon<\/em>, published in 2000, watercolor sketches and her handwritten notes fill some pages, balanced by typeset essays on other pages. In\u00a0Field Notes from Yosemite<\/em>, published in 2002, watercolor studies sprinkle the pages. The most recent book,\u00a0The Year of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off)<\/em>, includes Jordan\u2019s monotype on the cover and a series of \u201cbestiary\u201d cut paper designs at the beginning of certain chapters.<\/p>\n How does a writer shift gears to create visually? How does an artist know what medium will best support the thematic content of the book? And what are the challenges of working with editors on content and illustration? These were some of the questions I explored with Teresa Jordan by phone as she and her husband were driving to Elko, Nev., for the Cowboy Poetry Festival at the end of January.<\/p>\n Jordan was first a writer and a teacher. This was after majoring in history and earning a bachelor\u2019s degree from Yale. While teaching through the Northwest Writing Institute, part of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., she taught writing to art students at an art school. The students challenged her \u2013 \u201cIf we must learn how to write, you should learn how to draw.\u201d And so she did, taking a drawing course here and there. When she set out with friends to raft and camp in the Grand Canyon in 1997, she self-consciously took along her sketchbook and some watercolors her husband had given her for Christmas. In the evenings, after setting up camp, she would find time alone to draw and make notes. And why not? For a writer who can express in words \u2013 \u201cI found myself drunk with visual excitement, engaged in a gluttony of looking.\u201d (Field Notes from the Grand Canyon<\/em>) \u2013 drawing and painting is the perfect expressive complement.<\/p>\n \u201cVisual concentration seemed like a rest for my mind,\u201d explains Jordan. She wanted more art training, which eventually led her to take classes at the University of Utah. She was not after a degree, but she did want the depth of learning and the foundation that are part of the degree program. So she enrolled and completed a B.F.A. degree in 2002. While at the U, Jordan took some required printmaking classes. But it was when she went to Helper, to take workshops with Dave Dornan, that she was introduced to monotypes \u2013 a painterly printing process that produces just one print edition.<\/p>\n After graduating from the U, it seemed monotype printing was the best direction for Jordan\u2019s art, partly because her basement studio accommodated a press better than an easel. Her monotypes of chickens and landscapes have been exhibited at Philips Gallery in solo and group shows.<\/p>\n Unlike the loose, painterly watercolor sketches in her illustrated field journals, Jordan\u2019s newest book contains carefully designed, black and white graphic images of animals framed by a neat black rectangle with a word underneath. Like a medieval bestiary that associated animals \u2013 real or imagined \u2013 with moral values, Jordan\u2019s creatures (or trees in one case) shed light on the virtues and vices in her book. Carefully cut from black paper with a mat knife, the 20\u201d x 15\u201d images are part of a series Jordan calls \u201cFrom the Garden of Darkness and Light.\u201d Once the entire 25-piece series is done, Jordan hopes to display them, perhaps in a traveling exhibit, at galleries, libraries, and other venues related to the humanities.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t
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