Jordan, Sandra

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Jordan, Sandra

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Delacorte Press, Random House, 1745 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10019

CAREER: Author, editor, and photographer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Robert F. Silbert award, for Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist.

WRITINGS:

MIDDLE-GRADE NONFICTION, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

(With Jan Greenberg) The Painter's Eye: Learning to Look at Contemporary American Art, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Jan Greenberg) The Sculptor's Eye, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Jan Greenberg) The American Eye, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Jan Greenberg) Chuck Close, up Close, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Jan Greenberg) Frank O. Gehry: Outside In, DK Ink (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Jan Greenberg) Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Jan Greenberg) Action Jackson (Jackson Pollock biography), illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2002.

(With Jan Greenberg) Frog Hunt (juvenile picture book), Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2002.

(With Jan Greenberg) Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Jan Greenberg) Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Editor and photographer Sandra Jordan is the author of art-related books for younger readers. In collaboration with coauthor Jan Greenberg, she has written profiles of prominent artists and books on understanding the process and aesthetics of painting and sculpture.

In The Painter's Eye: Learning to Look at Contemporary American Art, Jordan and Greenberg "give readers a vocabulary" for expressing their like or dislike for a particular piece of art, and "help them assess how art provokes those responses," noted Deborah Stevenson on the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. The book includes color illustrations of paintings, photographs of artists, interviews, and poems inspired by the paintings. The basic structural elements of art are addressed, such as line, shape, texture, and color. "Above all, the humanity of making and looking at art is stressed," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Similarly, The Sculptor's Eye: Looking at Contemporary American Art covers in detail twenty-five modern sculptors and their works. Booklist reviewer Stephanie Zvirin commented that "this is a fine book that will interest teachers as well as students."

As collaborators, Jordan and Greenberg specialize in biographies of prominent artists, architects, and sculptors specifically aimed at young readers in the grade-school years. The first of these books, Chuck Close, up Close, offers a "tantalizing introduction to both the person and the art," Zvirin commented in another Publishers Weekly review. Jordan and Greenberg introduce Close's only subject matter—portraits—and provide perspective on the large-size work he produces. The authors include details on Close's family, his learning disability, and the paralysis that confined him to a wheelchair, but which did not destroy or diminish his involvement in art. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that "This ideal example of an artist biography not only provides readers and art lovers with insight into one artist's work … it inspires readers to consider the possibilities of their own creativity."

Frank O. Gehry: Outside In presents a "stunning profile of the avant-garde architect," commented Beth Tegart in School Library Journal. Known for creative and challenging design of buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Frank O. Gehry is an architectural iconoclast who rose from a position as a designer in Los Angeles to international fame and recognition. The authors include information on architecture as art and how to look at a building, plus full-color photographs, quotes from Gehry, and memories from his childhood that have led to some recurring motifs in his work. This "clear, elegant portrait" of Gehry "will encourage readers to think about contemporary art, architecture, and the creative process," stated Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg.

Famed post-impressionist Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh is the subject of Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist. Focused more on van Gogh's life than on his art, the book provides material on the artist's boyhood and offers details of the careers that he undertook, including art dealer and missionary, before settling on art. Drawing material from van Gogh's voluminous correspondence with his brother Theo, the authors do not shy from some of his more notorious actions and traits, including his psychological condition, his periods of furious energy, and the infamous incident with the artist's ear. "This outstanding, well-researched biography is fascinating reading," commented Robin L. Gibson in School Library Journal. Engberg, in another Booklist review, called the book "An exceptional biography that reveals the humanity behind the myth."

Frog Hunt is a departure from Jordan and Greenberg's rich artist biographies. A summertime journey into natural history, the book follows two young boys as they explore the environment of a freshwater pond while searching for frogs. They encounter a variety of wildlife, including muskrats, minnows, tadpoles, and turtles, before finally locating the prized amphibian. After taking turns holding the frog, they release it back to its marshy home. "This powerfully evocative book strikes just the right balance between adventure story and a reverie of a much-savored nature retreat," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Jordan and Greenberg return to the art world with Action Jackson, a biography of painter Jackson Pollock. They examine Pollock's creative process and contrast the artist's periods of deep contemplation with the physical feats of Pollock's almost manic act of creating his drip paintings. "This stunning collaboration is both a tour de force and an uncommon pleasure," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic.

In Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois, "the authors once again make challenging art accessible and exciting to teen readers," Engberg stated in Booklist. Relying on detailed research as well as interviews with the nonagenarian sculptor, Jordan and Greenberg "present an overall narrative of the amelioration of childhood trauma through art, of art as compulsion and therapy," commented Patricia G. Berman in Women's Review of Books.

Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop is "A riveting biography of one of the late-twentieth-century's most fascinating and inscrutable figures," observed a Kirkus Reviews critic. The biography explores Warhol's roots in working-class Pittsburgh, his pursuit and cultivation of celebrity, the shooting that nearly claimed his life, his homosexuality, the public persona that guarded a closely held private life, and his early death at age fifty-nine. Jordan and Greenberg "offer a riveting biography that humanizes their controversial subject without making judgments or sensationalizing," Engberg wrote in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, spring, 2003, Peter Plagens, review of Action Jackson, p. 378.

Booklist, October 15, 1993, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Sculptor's Eye: Looking at Contemporary American Art, p. 429; September 1, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of The American Eye: Eleven Artists of the Twentieth Century, p. 73; March 15, 1998, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 1242; March 15, 1999, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 1303; April 1, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 1382; October 1, 2000, Gillian Engberg, review of Frank O. Gehry: Outside In, p. 330; December 1, 2000, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 692; December 15, 2000, Gillian Engberg, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 810; August, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist, p. 2117; January 1, 2002, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 765; April 1, 2002, Stephanie Zvirin, "Top 10 Biographies for Youth," review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 1340; June 1, 2002, Cynthia Turnquest, review of Frog Hunt, p. 1738; September 15, 2002, Gillian Engberg, review of Action Jackson, p. 232; January 1, 2003, review of Action Jackson, p. 796; April 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois, p. 1469; June 1, 2004, Gillian Engberg, review of Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop, p. 1753; January 1, 2005, review of Andy Warhol, p. 772.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 1, 2000, Deborah Stevenson, "True Blue."

Horn Book, March-April, 1994, Lolly Robinson, review of The Sculptor's Eye, p. 223; January-February, 1996, Lolly Robinson, review of The American Eye, p. 91; September, 2000, Lolly Robinson, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 594; November-December, 2001, Lolly Robinson, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 770; November-December, 2002, Lolly Robinson, review of Action Jackson, p. 775; July-August, 2003, Lolly Robinson, review of Runaway Girl, p. 478; January-February, 2005, Lolly Robinson, review of Andy Warhol, p. 111.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2001, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 1123; August 15, 2002, review of Action Jackson, p. 1223; October 1, 2004, review of Andy Warhol, p. 960.

Kliatt, July, 2003, Jennifer Banas, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 51.

Library Bookwatch, February, 2005, review of Andy Warhol.

Publishers Weekly, July 5, 1991, review of The Painter's Eye: Learning to Look at Contemporary American Art, p. 67; September 13, 1993, review of The Sculptor's Eye, p. 137; March 9, 1998, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 69; July 3, 2000, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 73; July 24, 2000, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 95; March 11, 2002, review of Frog Hunt, p. 70; July 22, 2002, review of Action Jackson, p. 178; January 13, 2003, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 63; March 31, 2003, "The Artist's Life," review of Runaway Girl, p. 70; October 25, 2004, review of Andy Warhol, p. 49.

St. Louis Business Journal, December 18, 2000, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 42.

School Arts, March, 1992, Kent Anderson, review of The Painter's Eye, p. 50; October, 1994, Kent Anderson and Eldon Katter, review of The Painter's Eye, p. 49; November, 1995, Ken Marantz, review of The American Eye, p. 43; September, 1998, Ken Marantz, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 52; March, 2002, Ken Marantz, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 52.

School Library Journal, September, 2000, Beth Tegart, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 246; December, 2000, review of Frank O. Gehry, p. 53; September, 2001, Robin L. Gibson, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 246; April, 2002, Blair Christolon, review of Frog Hunt, p. 113; October, 2002, Robin L. Gibson, review of Action Jackson, p. 144; May, 2003, Delia Fritz, review of Runaway Girl, p. 169; October, 2003, review of Action Jackson, p. S30, and Runaway Girl, p. S66; April, 2004, Wendy Lukehart, review of Action Jackson, p. 62; November, 2004, Alison Follos, review of Chuck Close, up Close, p. 66, and Daryl Grabarek, review of Andy Warhol, p. 164.

Teacher Librarian, February, 2004, Deborah Taylor, review of Runaway Girl, p. 22.

Women's Review of Books, November, 2003, Patricia G. Berman, "Art and Autobiography; Three Books Examine the Career of Artist Louise Bourgeois," review of Runaway Girl, p. 1.