I met Jordan Beshore about a year or so ago. As I walked into my photo printing class (early as usual), I noticed her sitting there by herself – her short dark hair falling just above her shoulders, quiet and contemplative and dressed like the epitome of what you think quirky art school babes should look like. Instantly I knew I had to figure out a way to make her my friend, but all I could muster up was to lamely ask if I was in the right room. She told me I was and we kind of just exchanged awkward laughs before introducing ourselves and quickly pulling out our phones in attempts to expel the first-day-of-class awkwardness in the air. Although we didn’t speak much during the the rest of our time there, by the end of it I tried to casually ask if she’d like to exchange numbers for class purposes and internalized my over-excitement when she agreed.
She and I didn’t speak much throughout the quarter, aside from normal questions about getting print settings right and the like. But little did I know how close we would grow to become in the quarters to come.
The photo department isn’t big, so once you’ve knocked out your intro classes, you get used to seeing the same people recycled into classes quarter after quarter. I can’t really put my exact finger on where or how our friendship really took off after that first class, but it did. Since then, I’ve gotten the chance to watch her work evolve and constantly continue to push boundaries.
From the beginning, Jordan has been fiercely independent – never afraid to stand apart from the crowd in how she presents herself. In the time I’ve known her, her hair has gotten progressively shorter and changed colors. She’s currently working on growing out her unibrow and in the era of Kardashian “glamour”, she’s always opted for rocking her signature hairy legs and pits. She’s genuine. In a time when women are so caught up in modeling themselves after what other celebrities look like, she owns what it’s really like to be a woman and is completely unapologetic about it. And why shouldn’t she be?
Her brutally honest nature also spills over into her work and often deals with a lot of social commentary about women and various current affairs. She’s done work revolving around the idea of eating disorders and the struggle that comes with overcoming them, surrealist self portraits in which she covered her nude body in painted on eyeballs, commentary on women’s rights and their bodies, and most recently, a body of work commenting on littering and climate change using actual trash. Yes, trash.
During our time together, she’s been known to make work out of the unconventional and always creates pieces that have her character bursting through, loud and clear. You know a Beshore piece when you see one. She has had work published in February’s edition of LESTE magazine as well as work on display in November’s Open Studio Night at SCAD Atlanta.
To take a glimpse at more images like the ones featured in this article, head over to her website, https://www.jordanbeshore.com/ or check out her instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/jordanbeshore for her most current work.