Meet Jordan Jimenez | Painter & Art Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jordan Jimenez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I pursued art ultimately because I was depressed. I was going out a lot and didn’t really feel like I had a hobby or something productive that I was doing with my time which was definitely taking a toll on my mental health. I remembered I had loved my art classes in high school so I decided to find a painting studio near me. I thought if I could get classically trained without having to be back in a traditional school setting, I could learn the process of how to start and finish a painting on my own for fun outside of work. But what I found, was that painting was the only thing that relieved my anxiety and depression. I started out painting as just a side hobby to relieve stress, anxiety and depression, and what I found was that I was actually pretty good. That led me to believe, if I treated art like a 9-5 job, I could get somewhere as an artist.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is a reflection of who I am: fun, colorful, expressive and small! LOL!! I think what sets me apart from other right now is continuing to work from observation, particularly still life’s of classic subject images. For example, I was taught to paint from observation which is very hard, A lot of artists right now draw on their canvas with a pencil, trace images, trace from a projector, or even do a grid system on the canvas. Now, there’s no right or wrong way to do art, but I am continuing a traditional practice and technique that is becoming a lost “art”. I start with an underpainting on the canvas, so I use diluted paint to compose my still life or figure that I am looking at in front of me. Then I start painting once I feel happy with my composition. Right now I’m loving still life’s of food. I’m a foodie and I work at an oyster bar downtown, so it makes sense that I love painting still life’s of food. When I want an extra challenge, I’ll work on a portrait. LIfe drawing, particularly figure drawing/painting, is one of the hardest art forms. I love keeping my practice fresh by working on several different paintings at once. This keeps me from getting painter’s block and also keeps my brain and hand fresh when working on different subjects like still life, portraits, or landscapes. I want to be good at everything so I practice everything!

I think I got where I am today by setting boundaries in my life. I quite drinking and told myself if I wanted to pursue a career in art, I needed to treat it like a career. I treat the time I spend on my art like business meetings. I have certain times and days that I work on art and I communicate that to friends and family and so now they know to respect that time too. I had to respect it first though in order to set those boundaries. The best piece of advice I always remember is if you want to pursue a side hustle as a career, treat it like a 9-5. You wouldn’t cancel a business meeting to go to lunch with a friend, so don’t cancel your time for art either.

I want the world to know from my art that you don’t have to take life so seriously. Not everything has to be groundbreaking or politicized. As long as you’re learning something new, having fun and being creative, you’ll paint something beautiful!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Let’s pretend that I have a friend visiting me from back home in Texas the first week of the month. I would take them to art walk in downtown LA, on the first Thursday of the month. I love the grittiness of downtown, and there’s so many amazing restaurants down there too. I would start out by taking them to Grand Central Market to have lunch, then head to the Moca, or to see the new Basquiat Immersive Gallery. We’d then go to The Row on 7th and Alameda, do some shopping and have some oysters at Rappahannock. Then we’d walk around for art walk and check out the galleries and other artist’s down there. I love Brent Estabrook’s studio, so hopefully he’d be in town, and we could go check that out!

I also would take them to Ruen Pair to get bomb thai food and then hit up the Hollywood bowl after for a concert. I’d also take them to see an outdoor movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary! It’s always so fun to set up a picnic with friends just chill out. I also love doing the Dearly Departed Tour in Hollywood. A little cryptic, but you learn so much history about celebrities in a different way during a tour of the city. It also wouldn’t be a great week without hitting up the beach, particularly Zuma. The west side is always so fun and I love the food over there too! I’d take my friend to Elephante for the hangs and views.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I don’t think I could express how much gratitude and recognition I owe to my art mentor and boss, Ann Bridges. I would not be where I am today without her. I found her studio right before covid hit in January 2020, where I took my first painting class and I’ve been working with her ever since. I work in the restaurant industry at night, so when they shut down restaurants because of covid, I didn’t have anything to do with my free time, so I ordered a bunch of supplies and took classes with Ann almost everyday on zoom. Once the studio opened back up, I began taking in person classes again, assistant taught under her, and now I teach a kids art class every Saturday afternoon, as well as Paint & Sip adult workshops starting this month. Ann has really taken me under her wing and been such an amazing guidance in my budding career so far as an artist. I highly recommend spending a morning or afternoon with us at her studio in Koreatown. It’s the only studio I’ve gone to in LA that has helpful and amazing instruction on the fundamentals of fine art techniques in order to build a portfolio or to just learn something new!

Website: www.jordanmaejimenez.com

Instagram: @jordanmaejimenez

Other: Tik Tok: @jordanmaej