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BURN THE WITCH III: JULIE JORDAN-SCOTT, ARTIST

Burn Brightly
By Julie Jordan-Scott, Bakotopia.com contributor

I stepped away from my newly framed photos and heard a gasp escape from my lips.

It came from a place so deep inside me, I almost didn’t recognize it as my own. I laugh now, several days later, realizing this is how I feel when I look at my art - my images caught on camera and in words.

“Where did this come from? How did I do this? When did this come through me?” I ask myself.

I have been a word artist since before I could write. I dictated to my mother who scribed my words, which I dutifully copied. Some of my earliest writings were collected and saved by my mother. I can still feel the tightness with which I held my crayon, the urge for creative expression deep in my pre-school-age-cells.

There have been times in my creative journey when I have felt the same many years later. Burn the Witch came into my life two years ago. I listened when Jen Raven said with deep conviction: “We want your art in this show.” I put up every objection I could muster until finally I took Jen’s hand and said, “I am a Visual Artist.”

I am still primarily a word artist. This past year I had to rely, instead, on images to process my life experiences and create art. I relentlessly followed the call to create evocative images that could not be expressed through my word art.


Above: BTWIII graphic designer Nano (sitting center), hangs with the witches.

I have been studying the work and life of Georgia O’Keeffe, a premiere woman artist of the 20th century, in order to glean from her paintbrush as well as her heartbeat. A favorite moment in my reading has been from the first impression Arthur Steiglitz had of O’Keeffe, a gallery owner who hosted her first show. He saw her simple charcoal drawings and exclaimed, “Finally, a woman on paper!”

I used to think words were the only way I could be a woman on paper. Burn the Witch taught me being a woman on paper could be something else, something more. Through Burn the Witch I have become so much more. What an honor to witness a similar process of “becoming more” in other women artists here in Bakersfield as once again we host this annual celebration of women artists right here in our own collective back yard.

May we witches burn brightly.

NEXT: MEET BTW III'S - NYOKA!


Also printed in Bakotopia magazine issue 38, 10-2-08