New Trail Signs:
Q&A with Artist Andy Jordan
by Stella Pfau

Notice the new trail signs? The artist behind these beautiful works is  Andy Jordan, a Ruffner member and one of our Roebuck Springs neighbors. Below you’ll find my conversation with Andy about his story in becoming a painter and his artistic process in creating the signs. I hope you find the conversation as nourishing as I did. Be sure to follow him on Instagram at @brother_andy.

Stella:  Andy, thank you for taking the time to speak with me on this perfect fall morning. The signs look so beautiful and I really can’t decide if I like the morning or the nighttime side better. The first question I want to ask you is for you to share your relation to Ruffner and how the mountain became a part of your story in becoming a painter. 

Andy: I remember coming up here as a kid and always being fascinated with the mountain. I guess though, the real connection to Ruffner and becoming a painter started in 2008. I was living in the basement of my dad's house in Roebuck Springs, had just quit a management job, was working the night shift, kind of had a little nervous breakdown, and just was not happy with my career path. I would just come up here and walk these trails in the morning when I got off after my all-nighter, and after one hike I started painting and I felt like that's what I was supposed to do. My first attempts at “Plein air” were here, and they were all terrible. 

Stella: What does "Plein air" mean?

Andy: "Plein air" is French for “open-air” and is a painting technique where you paint from life, outdoors in real-time. Some of my first attempts at "Plein air" took place as they were building the wetlands boardwalk, and yeah, it felt right. It felt like that I was supposed to paint. But I still wasn’t convinced since being an artist is hard and was a major transition for me. I wanted a sign from the universe- something like finding a hawk feather to let me know I was supposed to be a painter. One morning I actually hiked the whole Ruffner trail system, simply searching for a hawk feather but I didn’t find one, and though I felt a little defeated, when I returned home I found that there had been one right in my front yard the whole time. And that’s when I decided to become a painter. 

Stella: I love that story - thank you for sharing. So Ruffner was in some ways, part of your Hero’s journey in becoming an artist - and every time you come back here it is a reminder of that. Michelle Reynolds, our Habitat Garden manager, and an artist herself, told me she has met so many artists on the mountain. It’s as if there is some gravitational pull for creative energy. 

Andy: Oh yeah. I mean, it's definitely like this red mountain iron ore is magnetic. It's - it's powerful.  When you are here there is this hope, this return of nature. Cause you get all the relics of the mining and then you see them being overtaken by nature and there's something so poetic about that. Here was a place that literally was stripped bare, but now after many years, nature has taken back over again and it gives us hope.

Stella: Yeah, the hope of restoration. 

Andy: Yeah. Just like the earth can still find a way to come back. 

Stella: Let's talk about the signs. I really enjoyed working with you to pick some of the native plants and animals and I know many of the ones we chose resonated with you. Can you share a little bit about the artistic process, including "Plein air", and how it went from concept to paint on metal?

Andy: Yeah. "Plein air" is definitely influential here because it is how you get to understand light. Because when you're, you know, working from a photograph you don't see the way the light becomes, you don't see those transitions, the movement of the sun, and the whole understanding of how light shifts and changes. So when you're working with air and sun, you've got about an hour to an hour and a half to work, and then after that, your light changes. So it's gotta be quick. It's a race against the sun and you've got to get that image down fast. And it's more of an understanding of looking at color and not thinking about objects necessarily, but instead thinking of texture and color. 

Stella: I definitely see that in the morning sign with those colors. You really got it right. 

Andy: Thank you. The impressionists were some of the first "Plein air" painters and their studies definitely inform everything else I do when it comes to painting nature. Their works are references for me and I'm bringing all their work and the paintings I've done when painting something new. These signs were special because the critter friends painted there, you know, most of them I see in my yard. I’ve got an Eastern Box Turtle I call Terry, and I’ve got raccoons, and I’ve seen slimy salamanders. I don't get any of the blue mushrooms. What were those called again? 

Stella: Oh, the indigo milk cap. I cannot wait for you to see them on the mountain. They are pretty striking. I wanted to say too, I'm really excited for these signs to be inspirational for members, visitors, old people, young people, everyone.  Do you feel like these signs tell a story?

Andy: Yes, I think the critters are definitely personified a little bit. Like I try to paint them kinda naturalistically, but there’s certainly a little bit of personification to them and, that’s like you said, with the hopes that someone will see it and not just see them as a critter friend, but see them as an individual, you know, and respect their position here. I hope it allows people to see they're supposed to be here. Like we're not necessarily supposed to be there, but that this is their mountain.

Stella: I'm really curious what the kids are going to say about the signs since they are so imaginative. I think they will really like the raccoon. Why did you choose that critter?

Andy: I love them. I had some fun and put a lot of research into that raccoon’s skeletal structure because I wanted what a raccoon would really look like if they were throwing up a peace sign to be accurate. I’ve got a bunch of raccoons that visit my yard every night that I like watching on my night cam. You can’t outsmart a raccoon, no matter how much you try, so it's like, you kind of gotta just live with them. And so I think they're awesome, even though they can be a lot of trouble.  They don’t have to worry about survival that much, so it gives them all this free time to get into trouble. Like one night they took my pond pump apart and spread out each and every piece as if they were doing the schematics of it, like reverse engineering, almost as if they wanted to know how it worked. 

Stella: Yes, raccoons are so smart. I do love that the signs show different representations of Ruffner in the morning versus the nighttime. I think a lot of people don't realize how much life comes out at night

Andy: Yeah, I agree. It is kind of a changing of the guards. Because you have that crew that's rolling during the day and then at night you know, little possums start coming out; I usually see them before I see the raccoons and they're kind of right there, like right after sunset. But then, like, the raccoons are the late-night shift. 

Stella: Yes, totally. Barred owls are crepuscular, so I see them come out at dawn and dusk instead of the dead of night, and then I usually see the chimney swifts come out right at sunset and the bats when it’s a little darker. 

Stella: So I know last year you became a member in part because of the native plant sale. Tell me a little about your love of native plants and what being a Ruffner member means to you?

Andy: I love watching birds and it goes hand in hand - you can't be a birder without also becoming a native plant nerd. The two are so intertwined because you're not going to attract those birds without having those plants. Michelle and I were watching the Tennessee warbler on the goldenrod and, you know, whether they're hunting bugs or eating seeds or, or getting a little sip of nectar, having those native plants and not using pesticides in your yard so that you can get all those little insects - its the food chain, everything is so tied together. Growing natives, it's a bit of laziness too just because you don’t have to do much, you just throw out the seeds, plant a few and then they’ll cultivate themselves. This is their soil, this is their climate, they know what to do. We as a society have gotten so diametrically opposed to the natural world where we have these pristine yards with all these plants that don't necessarily belong here. I think planting natives, it's just trying to find balance and stay connected to this land. 

I think being a member is just that sign of support for what y'all are doing and to help maintain this little oasis within our city. It's amazing to have this much woods in the middle of a city. I wish I had become a member earlier, but I'm just now in that financial stability where I'm not gonna miss that little monthly deduction from my bank account, that’s equivalent to buying a cup of coffee, it's more than worth it. 

Stella: Ok, last question. If there's one experience you hope visitors can have at Ruffner or even in their backyard in nature, what would it be? 

Andy: Oh, wow. Just that peace and being able to feel connected and part of this ecosystem. We can feel so detached; we sit in our houses with our air conditioning or our heater on, and being here and recognizing that the mountain has been here longer than you've been here and will be here long after you're gone. Getting back that connection to the earth and recognizing how intertwined everything is and being grateful for the opportunity to just witness all this life, and feel that peace that we are a part of it. I hope people will respect it, cherish it, protect it and enjoy it. 

Stella: That was beautiful. Thank you.