PYROGRAPHIC ART: Natural expression

Boulder City artist coaxes driftwood into giving up its treasure

Lynne Jordan may be one of scores of artists living locally, but she's the only one to have been chosen to be exhibited at the Boulder City Art Council's annual fund-raiser Saturday at the Community College of Southern Nevada, 700 Wyoming St.

And for good reason.

Jordan, who has displayed and sold her work at Art in the Park for 27 consecutive years, has mastered a unique form of expression called pyrographic art, which turns an ordinary piece of bleached driftwood found at freshwater lakes or mountain-forested areas into a charred, seared or burnt depiction of some form of culture, nature or wildlife.

"We wanted someone who had built up a lifetime of work and Lynne certainly has a track record in the city of doing masterful work," said the council's Phil Essar. "Time and time again I've talked to people who treasure her work. She's actually become and artistic symbol in Boulder City."

The event is set for 4 to 8 p.m. Admission to the Arts Council show is $15. Refreshments will be served by Milo's Best Cellars.

Perhaps anyone who has seen Jordan's work can appreciate the numerous hours and delicate touch needed to bring out the colors from within the wood and from the surface, in the form of different shades of burnt wood.

In most instances, Jordan will take a heavy-duty woodburning tool and with just her hands transform pale, smooth surfaces into three-dimensional depictions of wolves, owls, quails, elk and just about any other form of wildlife she's encountered in her years living and traveling in the West. Jordan uses no paints or dyes, but maybe an occasional touch of white charcoal.

Her love for her work started in her youth when her father was employed by the U.S. National Park Service, with assignments at more than half a dozen national treasures, from Colorado to California to Washington State.

Such exotic yet American places are where Jordan called home at one time or another. Locations included Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Olympia National Park in Washington State, Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco.

"We had wildlife all around us, from bears down to birds, all different kinds," Jordan said. "It was just part of the growing up. I've always loved to draw, always, and I've always had a passion for wood, so they just kind of merged."

Jordan's husband, Jim, can be credited for making his wife what and who she is today, for it was his advice that put the woodburning tool in her hand.

"When I very first started, I thought I would do a scrimshaw effect," she said. "I had no knowledge of how it was done, but I had a piece of wood and I tried carving lines into it with a kitchen paring knife. My very first piece was going to be a Madonna. I worked on it for three days and my husband said, 'Why don't you just go get a woodburning iron? Any Cub Scout knows that's what you use, but being a Brownie, it never occurred to me. So I did and it just went on and on and the more I did, the better it got. There are no two pieces of wood alike, so it never gets old, but it's always inspiring."

Like the proverbial chicken and the egg, the question always arises: "Does Jordan fit the figures to the wood or does the wood dictate the figures?"

"I'll use whatever surface will fit what I need to put on it," Jordan said. "Most wood I get is 10, 12, 14 inches wide. I just use whatever the wood suggests, certainly with the three-dimensional ones.

"To me, the wood says what belongs there and it's kind of like making figures out of clouds. Once you get started, you see more and more and more.

"As long as I've been doing this, to me, it's very obvious what goes on. I need a smooth part on the wood in order to get the face and after that I can fit whatever goes in there."

Her father, who also drew, helped to create Jordan's intense desire to do the same, and even helped to perpetuate her passion.

"I've had a passion to draw ever since I could use crayons," she said. "My father, I never saw any drawings that he did, but if I drew a horse's head, I could take it to him and he would critique it and true it up with just two strokes."

Jordan considers a woodburning iron a tool that helps her draw -- not necessarily burn -- just like a pencil. She even said that when she obtained the iron, "it was extremely exciting to be able to draw on wood."

Her prominent works have been exhibited in local galleries recently, but they've all been pulled for the big show Saturday. Because of her talent and uniqueness, Jordan's works are a consistent hit at the local Art in the Park event.

"A couple of years I got down (at Wilbur Square Park) at 7:30 a.m. and there was a line outside my booth," she recalled. "I hadn't hung my pieces in the booth the night before, so I brought them with me. I had big duffel bags, and as I was taking them out, people were buying them off the ground, still all wrapped up. It was very flattering and very exciting."

Not one to sit on her driftwood, Jordan has branched out in recent years into oils and pastels, citing Las Vegas artist Steve Lesnick as a major influence who has broadened her horizons.

"I was ready to get a lot deeper into flat art besides the wood and someone had said to me, 'When the student is ready, a teacher will appear' . . . and it happened, so he just appeared and it's certainly been good for me," Jordan said of Lesnick and his studio. "At the time I thought, 'How boring to pick up a flat, white square to paint on,' and that's what changed when I came here and started taking lessons from Steve Lesnick, who put it in a whole different perspective. So, it's exciting to me to do the painting as to do the wood."

Jordan's pieces range in price from $95 to nearly $2,000, depending on the size and complexity of the design.

Jordan added that for fun, she'd like to do some chain saw carving, but said, "I'd probably cut my leg off."

A much easier and safer task may await her in her own living room.

One of the walls is covered in reddish-brown, rough-hewn wooden 12-inch slabs that are just sitting there untouched.

When she was told about the blank planks staring back into the huge living room area that once was four rooms before the interior walls were torn out, she said, "I know. Yes, they're a possibility."


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