Thompson Jordan

Article by Ian Oakes
Indian Time Vol 30 No 21
May 24, 2012

Jordan Tehaweiakaron Thompson is an artist currently living in Cornwall, Ontario. He plans to move back to Cornwall Island, where he was born and raised, soon. Jordan attended school on Cornwall Island until grade eight, and from there he went to General Vanier for a year. It was after this year that he finished his high school career at the Proctor Academy in New Hampshire. After High School, Jordan Received his B.A. in Art at Plattsburgh State University, and his Masters in Early Education from SUNY Potsdam.

Jordan said he always did art, his whole life. First he started working alongside his brother, doing artwork as a way of bonding with him. Eventually though, his older brother stopped whereas Jordan continued.

Jordan was married three years ago, and he also has twin two-year-old boys who keep him on his toes. In addition, he works as a Speech and Language Support Person in Akwesasne. Between work and the twins he is quite busy, and sometimes finds he can't get to work on his art till later in the evening. Jordan's wife is very supportive of his work, helping with the kids, or he works while they play in and around the studio.

Jordan lists his influences as his culture, heritage, and legends, and he also draws inspiration from the works of others. Additionally he collects the work of others, displaying pieces from Gesso, John Thomas, and Noah King.

Jordan described his primary medium to be pen and ink, and he usually has three pieces going at the same time. He works on one until it's time to stop and then he moves onto another. He showed me a piece he is working on now where he has taken elements of his subject's interests and their life and incorporated them into the piece. This is indicative of his process when he gets custom work, he gets to know the subject and that is a start.

Next he showed me a piece which he had planned to enter into a competition but had missed the deadline due to so much custom work, he just couldn't get to it. The next piece he showed me was his interpretation of the Creation Story, using his twins to represent good and evil. Jordan joked he hadn't figured out which was who yet.

Jordan is really enthusiastic about tattoo design. Sitting on his desk was a Hiawatha Beh done more like a weathered flag, which was a custom piece someone commissioned, which Jordan also does, both custom work, and tattoo designs. He also just had a large piece done a day or two earlier, so he said if he winced a little that is why.

I quite enjoyed Jordan's work and my interview with him, even buying a print for my fiancée.

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