Artist Jordan Bruns explores the universal themes of destruction and rebirth, chaos and order, and old and new in his latest work, and attempts to reconcile these dualities in paint on panel.

“My personality needs some sort of order. It needs to put things together in a neat and orderly fashion,” Bruns says. “So for my paintings to look like this, I have to really force myself to do the opposite of what I want to do.”

Bruns, a semifinalist in the 2011 Bethesda Painting Awards, says he has always been fascinated with the concept of destruction and rebirth.

"You build this Lego castle and then you destroy it and rebuild it,” Bruns says. “So I think that kind of cycle has always been fascinating for me, even as a kid."

Bruns, who describes his painting process as organic, says he constantly encounters the struggle between chaos and order, even in his own creative process.  

The acrylic ink “wanders around the panels kind of haphazardly and then I go back in with acrylic paint and create some type of order to the chaos.” Bruns then adds enamels and shellacs to break up the order, which is then restored at the end with oil paint.

“Depending on the way the paint falls, depending on the way the inks run, the image follows those paths,” says Bruns, whose own life has taken many different turns.

After graduating from college with two art degrees, Bruns worked as a bartender before deciding to sell everything he owned and buy a Subaru Outback. He spent the next nine months driving around the United States and painting landscapes.

“I destroyed my life and kind of rebuilt my life and it kind of took off. And it was better for it,” says Bruns, who is now the resident artist at Glen Echo Park's Chautauqua Tower.

“Those kinds of shakeups in life are sometimes necessary and good.”

But shortly after the nine-month road trip, Bruns was faced with a shakeup he didn’t expect. While a graduate student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Bruns was diagnosed with a rare form of Cushing's disease. In 2007 he underwent major brain surgery at the National Institutes of Health to remove a tumor lodged behind his eyes.   

While followers of Bruns’ work believe the artist’s physical battle with the disease influenced the destruction and rebirth seen in his paintings, Bruns isn't completely convinced.

“I’m not sure that’s 100 percent true or not, but it sounds cool,” Bruns says. But, “I think there is some truth to that, due to the color change and the color being more vibrant now that I’m healthy again.”

His health restored, Bruns is more active than ever, teaching four classes at the Yellow Barn Studio, which he manages, and directing community outreach programs, such as "Evening With the Arts: A Benefit for the Children's Inn at NIH."

“I just think it’s a very human thing—that destruction and rebirth cycle. And it won’t ever get old,” he says.

“I like being timeless in a way.”