The Wind Will Not Carry You

By Jordan Evans

“The Wind Will Not Carry You,” by Jordan Evans, is an honorable mention for the Columbia Journal’s Special Issue on Loneliness in the art category.

Author’s note:

The light on her face did not reflect, but illuminated the softening lack of its contents.

I can’t claim to have created this piece with loneliness in mind. The planning-and-producing mindset typically leads me to a sloppy, forced result that offends the eye. Instead, I empty my head and follow the little stream that remains. It leads me to where, I think, sincerity lives.

I constructed this piece with cut and torn paper mashed and smothered together with rubber cement. I selected the original images from magazines, mostly National Geographic issues from the sixties and seventies. I like the thick, powdery paper best in these issues, and the look of film photography. More modern magazine pages have a razor’s edge to them. They’re glossy, and full of photoshop. I believe that film photography captures a smaller range of colors than digital photography. I can create more cohesive color palettes when I have less to work with.

I would say loneliness was a feeling I ignored while making this, but by the time the piece was done, I held the mirror up and couldn’t ignore or argue with it any longer. Maybe it is like paleontology, I don’t know exactly what it is I’m looking for. Bones or fossils or a little mosquito gilded in the sweet sap of the Cambrian Period, but I know I need to dig, and sweep, and brush sediment away carefully, because I can’t damage what I seek, even though I’m a bit lost as to what that is.




About the author:

Jordan Evans is an artist currently residing in Portland, Oregon. When he isn't making collage or music, he is worried about not making collage or music. Find him on Instagram @lifeisonlyadream8.