Jim Jordan has been an “art class lab rat” at DVC for the past eleven years. He says, “It’s depressing to have a garage full of art that no one can see,” so he’s glad the library is displaying his work over the next couple of months in an exhibit titled “Family & Friends.”

The exhibit, an impressive 62 acrylic paintings, is spread throughout the DVC library. The collection of the paintings is composed of a variety of friends from various places including his many art classes here, as well as family members, all in different settings. They range from 11-by-13 inch water color sheets to large 24-by-30 canvases.

One collection he has put together is hung by the periodicals desk. Each painting is different from the one next to it—a man sitting at a table, a woman sitting on a park bench with her cell phone, old man sitting on a brown couch holding a coffee mug- but they are held together with a common thread – each of them wears a red shirt.

When deciding who to paint, he starts with the photographs he has taken.  He says he tends to take pictures now rather than asking them to sit for multiple days in a row. He admits to having a person sit for four days once while he painted.

Jordan says of his work that he’s done “135 of the little ones and, oh, 40 of the big ones.”

He says he looks for “An interesting face, position, and lighting.”

He uses subtle colors combined with sporadic eye-catcher to balance out the painting’s pallet. One painting of a little boy has browns, tans, and a calm blue to contrast the turquoise, orange, and Easter green.

The strokes of his paintings are thick but organized. In one portrait of an art professor, Jordan used an artistic knife and very good coloring: yellow, orange, green, blue, and brown.

He chooses to paint here, he says, because he likes the structure and social environment and now says, “I’m kind of a lab rat” because he’s here so much. He advises younger, up-and-coming artists to enroll at a community college because it is inexpensive.

The plans for his collection are already in the works. His idea is to paint “something around horses.” He says he wants to complete “a series where people are working around horses, like washing them down, and putting their halters on. And I’ll probably include dogs in there.”

The current collection will be on display in the art gallery, which is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., until October 16. There will be a public showing of his work September 30th from 5-7 p.m.

Contact Carly Jones at [email protected]