Work samples

  • Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment
    Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment
    Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement. I invented this character who travels up and down the river collecting and sharing stories with villages. Each plastic bottle is filled with sticks wrapped with colored coded strings serving as a mnemonic device for a story.
  • Crow Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    Crow Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    Crow Vulture Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement. This series of traveling altarpieces are homages to the birds in my life. They are made from cast off debris and downed trees found in Baltimore City streams and forest buffers. These areas feel post-apocalyptic and yet full of life and magic. Found and burned wood, vintage flatware chest, rusted bicycle handlebar, rusty pocket knife found in mud, stream polished broken china, beads, all found in stream, , collage, velvet, paint, 21x17x4"
  • “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful”
    “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful”
    “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful” —Joy Harjo (Muscogee (Creek) Nation- Cherokee, author, musician, U.S. Poet Laureate), 92x48x16, Tree limb, ply wood, headlight, rusty pots, scythe handle, wheels, paint. A series allowing downed injured trees to speak with the voice of female environmental poets and scientists in mind.
  • Sacred Dance of Flight
    Sacred Dance of Flight
    "Sacred Dance of Flight", 36x66", Found spoons from banks of Herring Run where people heated drugs in camp fire, salvaged architectural elements, wood, paint, digital images. A series based on my daughter's explorations of Herring Run and becoming deeply intimate with a natural place. We spent time changing the negative impact of pollution into a positive love of our world.

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About Jordan

Baltimore City

Jordan Tierney, Symbiocene Epoch Shaman, acts as a catalyst for deep kinship with our planet.
To encounter her practice is to be transported to a spiritual and timeless space. Her art is an experience. A revelation. A way to be reminded of our common humanity and our connection to powerful natural forces. She shares her artwork to inspire other human earthlings to slow down and reconnect with themselves, each other and the living breathing planet that is our home. Her outdoor immersion workshops guide others who want to spend time observing, drawing, painting and sculpting.
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Bird Reliquaries from Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement

My work grows organically from time spent wandering in the urban streams and forest buffers of Baltimore. These hidden waterways were designed to channel storm water from all our impervious surfaces like roads, shopping malls, and housing developments. The water transports all the trash and pollution it collects along the way, to the Jones Falls, then the Chesapeake Bay, and out to the Atlantic Ocean. While hiking, I feel a mixture of awe at the lush life that manages to grow in such an abused environment and horror at the way we have treated the earth. I worry about climate collapse and especially my daughter’s future.

For a long time I grieved and raged. Now I use my skills and a little sorcery to change the valence of the trash I collect from negative to positive. I weave the overlooked into a poetic visual presence I hope can remind us all that our earth is beautiful and complicated and magical. This process of observing nature, collecting trash, and making art has become a spiritual practice for me.

These sculptures are each based on a bird I have traveled through the outdoors with. Many of the wood pieces I use come from trees knocked over in a flood so I can use parts of the roots where a stone got incorporated in the wood. This resiliency during growth is an inspiration to me. People who live close to the land and make everything they need must use what they can find in their immediate environment. I enjoy that kind of resourcefulness. Each piece is a manifestation of many days of labor. This kind of devotion only happens when we love something. I love this planet and am grateful for the places my feet touch the ground here.

  • Kingfisher Reliquary
    Kingfisher Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusions vintage flatware chest, antique wheel, spark plug, rusty hardware, fishing lures, beads, and hair ties found in stream, kettle spout, arrow tip collage, velvet, paint, 15x22x4"
  • Hummingbird Reliquary
    Hummingbird Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusion; hardware, beads found in stream, lab glass collage, paint, silverware chest from junk shop, velvet, 33x16x4"
  • Tree Swallow Reliquary
    Tree Swallow Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusion, found and salvaged hardware; knives, beads, circuit boards found in stream, wish bones, keys, collage, paint, silverware chest from junk shop, velvet, 33x16x4"
  • Turkey Vulture Reliquary
    Turkey Vulture Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusion; watches, bottles, bones, parking meter part, knife handle, hardware, beads, hardware found in stream, collage, paint, silverware chest from junk shop, velvet
  • Osprey Reliquary
    Osprey Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusion; garden tool, piano stool foot, crystal, hardware found in stream, collage, paint, silverware chest from junk shop, velvet
  • Pileated Woodpecker Reliquary
    Pileated Woodpecker Reliquary
  • Great Blue Heron Reliquary
    Great Blue Heron Reliquary
  • Blue Jay Reliquary
    Blue Jay Reliquary
  • Barred Owl Reliquary
    Barred Owl Reliquary
  • Yellow-shafted Flicker Reliquary
    Yellow-shafted Flicker Reliquary
    Tree root with natural stone inclusions vintage flatware chest, antique divider, dominoes, rusty hardware, game pieces, beads, and buttons, found in stream, amber bottle, collage, velvet, paint, 15x22x4"

Ceremonial Garments from Late 21st Century Jones Falls Settlement

If the Anthropocene is the geologic era where we humans affected the earth in a disastrous way, the Symbiocene would be a time when we learn to live in communion with the planet again. After fretting for years about the state of the health of our planet, I have begun to think of myself as the Symbiocene Epoch Shaman. I have developed an artistic and spiritual practice of being a part of the land I walk. Everything I make is of that land and my intimate knowledge of the plants, creatures, rocks, weather patterns, and pollution. These garments are made from things I found in the streams of Baltimore City or junk shops here. They are what I imagine would be worn in a time when the climate has collapsed and we have made shelter, found food, and are now looking for the meaning of life described in a more modern way than our old spiritual practices. I weave the overlooked into a poetic visual presence I hope can remind us all that our earth is beautiful and complicated and magical. 
  • Traveling Storyteller's Garment, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    Traveling Storyteller's Garment, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    plastic bottles from Baltimore City streams filled with sticks wrapped in color-coded strings serving as mnemonic devices for stories, corks, string, rope, textiles from streams, antique canvas life preserver from flea market
  • Traveling Storyteller's Robe
    Traveling Storyteller's Robe
    plastic bottles, textiles, and toy found in urban streams, sticks, string, vintage life preserver found at flea market, fishing line- Each bottle has sticks with patterns of colored string wrapped around them serving as mnemonic devices for stories told along the Symbiocene Shaman's journey
  • Ceremonial Garments, gallery view
    Ceremonial Garments, gallery view
  • Winter Solstice Robe
    Winter Solstice Robe
    soda cans found in urban streams, raccoon coat form junk shop
  • Capabilities/Responsibilities Garment
    Capabilities/Responsibilities Garment
    Vintage leather shoulder pads, twine, old wooden tool handles, grommets
  • Robe of Capabilities/Responsibilities
    Robe of Capabilities/Responsibilities
    used wooden tool handles, twine, vintage football shoulder pads
  • Storyteller video
    Charles Cohen recorded me wearing the storyteller's rig while walking in the Jones Falls. This character is a post climate-collapse traveling story-teller I invented. The rig is made of plastic bottles I gathered from Baltimore City streams. Each bottle is filled with stick that are wrapped in colored string forming designating coded information. each bottle is a mnemonic device for a story. The wearer travels up and down the river listening and recording stories and sharing them with the villages along the river.
  • Traveling Storyteller
    Traveling Storyteller
  • Detail, Traveling Storyteller's Robe
    Detail, Traveling Storyteller's Robe
  • Detail, Traveling Storyteller's Robe
    Detail, Traveling Storyteller's Robe

Invocations

These adorned bone-like sculptures are both memorial and messenger, epitaph and prophecy, funeral dirge and call-to-arms.

Jordan’s art practice and life are intertwined. Her studio space includes the abused and forgotten patches of land sandwiched between roads and urban streams.  A magical realm of tangled forest writhes along the edges of these streams. Ideas germinate during her wanderings in these zones as she practices looking for nothing and everything at the same time. Her natural sense of time and place is restored by absorbing all the patterns of seasonal changes, animal activities, growth, and decay.      

These urban waterways carry the flood of storm water from the surfaces of our human-built landscape out to the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean beyond. The water gathers whatever it encounters in the roads and gullies. This flotsam and jetsam whispers clues to life. Found objects and foraged organic materials later combine in the studio as spiritual translators for Earth’s pleas and wisdom. Jordan speaks in the language of the terrain we zoom past every day, busy ignoring our breathing earthling brethren.

These forests have witnessed and been victims of our human folly for hundreds of years now. Some trees seem to gesticulate as spokespeople, warning of the looming climate cataclysm. The large works combine these patient arboreal expressions with phrases from female environmentalists, poets, and social justice activists. Jordan is inspired by these brave women who were often themselves victims of injustice and their work was often ignored. Degradation of women and abuse of the Earth historically go hand in hand. Each sculpture was designed with some of these writings in mind.

  • “Acknowledging the gifts that surround us creates a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of enough-ness which is an antidote to the societal messages that drill into our spirits telling us we must have more” —Robin Wall Kimmerer
    “Acknowledging the gifts that surround us creates a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of enough-ness which is an antidote to the societal messages that drill into our spirits telling us we must have more” —Robin Wall Kimmerer
    “Acknowledging the gifts that surround us creates a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of enough-ness which is an antidote to the societal messages that drill into our spirits telling us we must have more” —Robin Wall Kimmerer (Citizen Potawatomi Nation, scientist, writer, teacher, activist), 76x30x30", Tree limb, ply wood, chandelier, copper wire, glass, lobster trap knots, bath tub clawfoot, garden cultivator head, grappling hooks, wheels, paint
  • “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful”- Joy Harjo
    “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful”- Joy Harjo
    “The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful” —Joy Harjo (Muscogee (Creek) Nation- Cherokee, author, musician, U.S. Poet Laureate) 92x48x16", Tree limb, ply wood, headlight, rusty pots, scythe handle, wheels, paint
  • “…it’s as though these trees are sharing their deepest secrets. These connections are crucial to our well being” —Suzanne Simard
    “…it’s as though these trees are sharing their deepest secrets. These connections are crucial to our well being” —Suzanne Simard
    “…it’s as though these trees are sharing their deepest secrets. These connections are crucial to our well being” —Suzanne Simard (scientist, author ‘Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest), 96x30x30", Tree limb, ply wood, metal, screen, bottles, bicycle wheels, wire, paper, light bulbs, paint, wheels
  • “Man is a part of nature, and this war against nature is inevitably a war against himself”- Rachel Carson
    “Man is a part of nature, and this war against nature is inevitably a war against himself”- Rachel Carson
    “Man is a part of nature, and this war against nature is inevitably a war against himself” —Rachel Carson (1907-1964 scientist, writer, activist) 76x18x10" Tree limb, ply wood, gate ball and chain, rusted chain & hooks, wheels, paint
  • “The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” —Jane Goodall
    “The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” —Jane Goodall
    “The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” —Jane Goodall (1934- , scientist, activist), 68x14x13", Tree limb, ply wood, deer bones, string, wheels, paint
  • “In a time of such destruction, our lives depend on this listening. It may be that the earth speaks its symptoms to us.” Linda Hogan
    “In a time of such destruction, our lives depend on this listening. It may be that the earth speaks its symptoms to us.” Linda Hogan
    “In a time of such destruction, our lives depend on this listening. It may be that the earth speaks its symptoms to us.” Linda Hogan (Chickasaw Nation, writer, educator, environmental activist), 83x26x20", Tree limb, ply wood, red industrial warning light, stuffed animals, wheels, paint
  • “Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.” —Winona LaDuke
    “Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.” —Winona LaDuke
    “Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.” —Winona LaDuke (White earth Band of Ojibwe, economist, environmentalist, writer, activist, hemp farmer), Tree limb, ply wood, glove molds, beads, wire, wheels, paint
  • “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” —Ida B Wells
    “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” —Ida B Wells
    “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” —Ida B Wells (1862-1931 Investigative journalist, educator, one of founders of NAACP), 86x12x18", Tree limb, ply wood, headlight, hanging bracket, wheels, paint
  • “Living Democracy grows like a tree, from the bottom up.”- Vandana Shiva
    “Living Democracy grows like a tree, from the bottom up.”- Vandana Shiva
    “Living Democracy grows like a tree, from the bottom up.” —Vandana Shiva (Indian, scholar, environmental and social justice activist), 80x9x5", Tree limb, ply wood, piano stool clawfoot, wheels, paint
  • “What is it that you have in your pocket that you didn’t take from our land?”- Nirupabai
    “What is it that you have in your pocket that you didn’t take from our land?”- Nirupabai
    “What is it that you have in your pocket that you didn’t take from our land?” —Nirupabai (Indian, Adivasi environmental activist)

Spiritual Devices from the 3rd Millennium

I create objects from the confluence of materials left on the shores by the floodwaters.

When I walk the urban wilds of stream water run-off forests, I feel set free from the organization of the chronological timeline we have in our heads. I become one with the cycles of the seasons, the immense power of floodwaters, the tracks a heron leaves. The past, present, and future merge into one.

Since most of my urban wilds are only traveled by animals, I can imagine the beauty and grandeur of Mid-Atlantic North America before colonists arrived.

Or I can focus, like an archaeologist, on the man-made objects now claimed by the stream or forest floor, and ponder the marks of human behavior.

Eventually I feel as though I am out to forge a life in this terrain. Survival. What might I find that is edible or useful.

This leads me to feel a bit post-apocalyptic. How would I describe the meaning of life given a clean slate to invent a my own spirituality formed by this place?

  • Lullaby
    Lullaby
    "Lullaby", 32x6x6", Tree limb, glass, furniture parts, porcelain insulators, hardware, stones, paint
  • Ambergris
    Ambergris
    Ambergris, 32x9x6", Tree limb, glass, piano stool foot, hardware, paint
  • Premonition
    Premonition
    Premonition, 60x7x4", Tree limb, light bulb, furniture part, chain exhaust pipe, canteen, hardware, paint
  • Star Dust
    Star Dust
    Star Dust, 34x5x5", Glass, tree limb, furniture part, amber vial, pearl, hardware, paint
  • Tell Tale
    Tell Tale
    Tell Tale, 65x6x5", Tree limb, glass, tool handle, screw driver, rope, hardware, paint
  • Voo Doo
    Voo Doo
    Voo Doo, 39x5x5", Tree limb, furniture part, amber bottle, pearl, hardware, paint
  • Fertility Goddess
    Fertility Goddess
    Fertility Goddess, 27x7x3", Glass, tree limb, clock works, porcelain insulators, chain, cabinet knobs, rake, hardware, paint
  • Resurrection
    Resurrection
    Resurrection, 25x14x4, Glass, shovel, tree limb, wish bone, light bulbs, hardware, paint
  • Rough Spot
    Rough Spot
    Rough Spot, 26x7x3", Tree limb, traffic beacon, furniture parts, broken china, paint
  • Joy Ride
    Joy Ride
    Joy Ride, 36x16x7", Tree root with natural stone inclusion, wheel, bedsprings, mole mesh, paint

Anthropocene Scenes

2019
This project grew out of spending time in an urban stream with my daughter. At first I was appalled at the condition of the stream and its banks. As I watched my daughter intuituively interact with the environment I saw deeper into the place and all the life it created and supports. She spontaneously built shelters, weapons, rituals, stories. These works are built in salvaged windows and hold the evidence of what we saw, found, and created on our adventures.
  • Life Force
    Life Force
  • Fishing for Something Bigger than Expected
    Fishing for Something Bigger than Expected
  • Sacred Dance of Flight
    Sacred Dance of Flight
    "Sacred Dance of Flight", 36x66", Found spoons from banks of Herring Run where people heated drugs in camp fire, salvaged architectural elements, wood, paint, digital images. A series based on my daughter's explorations of Herring Run and becoming deeply intimate with a natural place. We spent time changing the negative impact of pollution into a positive love of our world.
  • Mother Earth
    Mother Earth
  • At Home in the World
    At Home in the World
  • Purification Rite
    Purification Rite
  • Seek
    Seek
  • Intrepid
    Intrepid
  • Song for the Birds
    Song for the Birds
  • Canis Major
    Canis Major

Poems

10x10" poems on weathered plywood with found objects from urban streams, maps, buttons.
These are quiet meditations about life.

2019
  • Memories
    Memories
  • Allure
    Allure
  • Camisole
    Camisole
  • Ancient Vibes
    Ancient Vibes
  • Allure
    Allure
  • Love
    Love
  • Rusty Shores
    Rusty Shores
  • Hopeful Elixer
    Hopeful Elixer
  • Migration
    Migration
  • Telegraph
    Telegraph

Ritual Artifacts

These pieces are carved wood found in urban streams. When streams flood due to storm drain run-off, they change the surrounding ladscape dramatically. It feels post-apocalyptic with all the trash and devastation. The rising swift water often knocks down trees, exposing the root balls. If the tree grew in a rockky area, the roots had to grow between and around rocks. If unable to do that, the roots just absorb the rock and keep going. I find these rare occurences and harvest them. I use hand tools to make what look to tools or spiritual devices for use in a post-apocalyptic landscape where I am living down by a stream. Mother nature and I create these together. 
  • Truce
    Truce
    Carved sycamore with rock formation 12x8x5"
  • Pitcher
    Pitcher
    hand-carved pitcher-like burl vessel with bark exterior, old piano leg handle, brass drain cover spout
  • Net
    Net
    Carved wood with rock formation and stainless steel net 8x8x12"
  • Furrower
    Furrower
    Carved sycamore with rock formation
  • Censer
    Censer
    hand-carved spalted oak burl, rusty bracket so it can swivel, a lid made of salvaged metal and wood parts, and a long wooden handle from an abandoned chair.
  • Ladle.jpg
    Ladle.jpg
  • Dipper
    Dipper
    Carved sycamore with two rock formations 4x6x16
  • Swallow
    Swallow
    Carved sycamore with rock formation 6x6x20
  • SecondHelping
    SecondHelping
    Carved wood with two rock formations 5x6x16"
  • Berry Picker
    Berry Picker
    carved found wood with natural rock inclusion, net

If One of Us Is Chained, None of Us Are Free

Large-scale charm bracelet carved of wood. Western Christian symbols of good will intertwined with shackles of slave-trade era. Represents our parallel and conflicted historical narrative, of good will, and our relationship to others and objects
  • If One of Us Is Chained, None of Us Are Free
    If One of Us Is Chained, None of Us Are Free
    Large-scale charm bracelet. Carved wood Various dimensions (here approx. 60"x60")
  • detail, Faith, Hope, and Charity
    detail, Faith, Hope, and Charity
  • detail
    detail
  • detail
    detail
  • detail
    detail
  • detail, St. Christopher medal
    detail, St. Christopher medal
  • detail, wish bone
    detail, wish bone
  • detail, shackles
    detail, shackles
  • detail, for scale
    detail, for scale
  • detail, for scale
    detail, for scale

Wood sculpture

These are large scale carvings of wood and found objects. They speak to socio-economic, environmental, and emotional issues.
  • Sailors' Rosary
    Sailors' Rosary
  • Crow Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    Crow Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement
    Crow Vulture Reliquary, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement. This series of traveling altarpieces are homages to the birds in my life. They are made from cast off debris and downed trees found in Baltimore City streams and forest buffers. These areas feel post-apocalyptic and yet full of life and magic. Found and burned wood, vintage flatware chest, rusted bicycle handlebar, rusty pocket knife found in mud, stream polished broken china, beads, all found in stream, , collage, velvet, paint, 21x17x4"
  • Life Ring
    Life Ring
    92x40x6� (variable), ring is 32� carved, burned, painted wood, metal hardware, rope, fishing bobbers metal letters reading, "the cruel seas, remember, took him in november"
  • Cumulonimbus
    Cumulonimbus
    size variable, cart is 22x50x36� found wood and styrofoam, fishing net, wheels
  • Sail for the Siren Winds
    Sail for the Siren Winds
    108x84x5� lace, bras, rope, wood
  • Ascension
    Ascension
    108x10x16", carved, painted wood with budvases, rope, metal
  • Empire
    Empire
    52x12x22", carved, painted oak salvaged from 1870's house, broken china, stove flue cover
  • Things Put On Pedestals
    Things Put On Pedestals
    22x16x13", carved, burned, painted oak salvaged from 1870's house, wood moulding
  • Oracle
    Oracle
  • Gaia
    Gaia
    Found root with stone inclusion, carved wood, antler, feathers

Wood Sculpture

Large scale wood carvings with assemblage of found objects addressing socio-economic, evironmental, emotional, and spiritual issues
  • Thwarted
    Thwarted
    29x21x7, carved and painted yellow pine joists salvaged from an 1870's house in bolton hill
  • Whisper Gatherer
    Whisper Gatherer
    60x80x36 assemblage of found objects like old t.v. cabinet, bottles, old phonograph horn with accordion-like fabric and wood movable arms, lighted x-ray front with spray paint images
  • Coracle
    Coracle
  • Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment
    Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment
    Post-Climate Collapse Traveling Story Teller's Garment, Late 21st Century, Jones Falls Settlement. I invented this character who travels up and down the river collecting and sharing stories with villages. Each plastic bottle is filled with sticks wrapped with colored coded strings serving as a mnemonic device for a story.
  • Collateral Damage (detail)
    Collateral Damage (detail)
  • Muse Prayer
    Muse Prayer
  • Piety
    Piety
    36x100x62", carved, painted wood with mirrors, screen, buttons, hooks, bottles
  • Dreamboat
    Dreamboat
    104x53x6 found wood, 2 liter soda bottles, string, paint on pages from The New Dictionary of Thoughts, 1955
  • Epitaph
    Epitaph
    Carved maple 60x13x9"