Bayou Artist | Ansell M. Jordan, II

Article by Starla Gatson
Photography by Kelly Moore Clark

It’s hard to put Ansell M. Jordan, II into a box. From floral design to painting, sewing and textile work, the Monroe native wears many hats, and he has for years.

“I enjoy a lot, and I don’t feel like a person should just be limited to one thing,” he declares before adding with a laugh, “I do all the things.” 

Specifically, the things Jordan does now are floral design, painting, and, most recently, sewing and textile work, all while holding a substitute teaching position at Beekman Charter School. His talents don’t stop there, though. Jordan shares that he was a lifelong choir kid, and during his college years, he lent his time and energy to a variety of different clubs and organizations. He has taken on other pursuits in the past and will undoubtedly dive into new ones in the future. After all, he says, he’s a hustler and a learner, and from that combination stems his long, well-rounded resume and multimedia artistry.

“[My passion for education and learning] drives my focus in art,” Jordan says. “If I wasn’t so thirsty to know how to do so many things and didn’t want the knowledge, I probably wouldn’t be this good at the things I do.” 

Jordan traces his love of learning back to his childhood. He was born into a family that highly appreciated education, and they passed their values down to him. He was eager to gain not only academic knowledge — he notes he was especially fascinated with biological sciences — but artistic knowledge, too. Though not necessarily considered artists by trade, Jordan says his family members are creative. Watching his mother, who studied fashion merchandising, his contractor grandfather, and his home design-savvy grandmother fueled the artistry he says he was born with, quipping, “I’ve been [creating art] since I popped out of the womb.” 

Hands-on toys like building blocks and puzzles also helped develop Jordan’s fondness for learning how to make things. Design-centric television programming, like HGTV and Victor Cascio’s KNOE segment, didn’t hurt, either, Jordan says, remembering, “I had one of those plastic play tables. [Victor] would do tablescapes, and I would make little holiday tablescapes [on my play table] at six or seven.” 

You might assume that, given the creativity and appreciation for education that was all around him, Jordan decided at an early age to pursue as much formal art education as he possibly could and jump on track to become a working art professional. However, this wasn’t the case. 

“I was planning on going into life sciences,” Jordan shares of his younger self’s career ambitions. “I had never taken an art class before college. I always kept a sketchbook, but I wanted to go into agricultural sciences.”

That was the plan until his senior year of high school when Jordan attended a music conference. 

“I was so moved by the lady that was presenting that I was like, ‘I want to do this the rest of my life,’” he says. “I thought I wanted to do musicology, which is music history and the study of music.”

Many discouraged his interest in musicology, declaring there was no money in that field and no one used a musicology degree. So, instead, he decided to study vocal music education at the University of Louisiana Monroe, where he was accepted on a music scholarship. His grades were good, and he performed in several ULM School of Visual and Performing Arts productions. However, he ultimately decided this field of study wasn’t the right fit. As it turned out, he explains, he wasn’t a “singing-in-front-of-his-peers-on-a-regular-basis kind of person.”

This realization about himself made Jordan pivot to visual art and work with the interest in design he’d carried since he was a child imitating Victor Cascio’s tablescapes. He headed to Louisiana Tech University and pursued a degree in theater with a concentration in costume and set design. The hope was that he’d then be able to build a career as a set designer for stage and film productions. Unfortunately, though, financial aid issues forced him to discontinue his studies. However, not having a degree hasn’t halted Jordan’s design career; it simply pushed it in different directions.

Though no longer doing so in a classroom setting, Jordan continued learning new design skills. One of these was floristry, a practice he’d picked up in 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. He had just been hired as a Monroe City Schools substitute teacher when the rapidly spreading illness caused the world to shut down. With schools closed indefinitely, Jordan needed to find a way to make ends meet, and fast — there was only $50 left in his checking account.

“I had barely gotten my first paycheck, and we were on lockdown,” he remembers. “I thought, ‘Hm, what can I do?’ What skills do I possess to make a way in Monroe, Louisiana, with no degree?”

What he could do, it turned out, was design and sell floral arrangements. It was something he already did for himself regularly, plus it satisfied his natural inclination to create and give to others. It only made sense, he figured, to try to make a few dollars doing it.

“I bought materials with the $50, set up a table in Forsythe Park, and I sold out that afternoon,” Jordan says.

Necessity sparked the birth of Just Charming Floral & Events, the brand under which Jordan sells artfully created floral arrangements and gift items, and it’s the same thing that brought his second brand, Jordan Sewing, into the world two years later. 

Jordan’s then-fiancé was competing in a contest that required him to have multiple costumes. Rather than going out and purchasing them, Jordan elected to make them himself. It was an economical choice, and besides, he adds, he’d always wanted to learn how to sew — the three sewing machines sitting untouched in his home had taunted him long enough. 

Since Jordan fired up the sewing machine then, he hasn’t stopped. Sure, he’s still a licensed florist, ready to provide flowers when needed, and he still paints abstract and nature-inspired works. But right now, Jordan Sewing and its sub-brands Rosy Apparel Co. and Songbird Studio Home hold most of his attention.

“Currently, [my favorite medium] is sewing, and I think that’s because I’m still learning. I just bought five textbooks on sewing and drafting patterns for garment design. It’s always a process. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I can make this stocking; I’m good. I’m never going to learn anything else.’” 

You’ll find Jordan’s creations for sale at The Trove (2252 Tower Drive Suite 103) and The Good Daze (111 Art Alley). He’s also working on getting a website together so customers can order goods directly from the source. That’s the plan, he shares before adding, at least for now. He’s not sure when he’ll be prompted to shift his focus to another artistic medium, but he assumes at some point, he will.

“I’m sure one day, I’ll get bored and go do something else, or if it’s not doing what it needs to do and just needs to be a hobby, it’ll be that,” he says, “Or I might reach my personal limit of what I’m able to accomplish.”

However, he notes that, though his operation is still somewhat small, the world of sewing is so vast and has much for him to learn; he’ll likely be at it for a while. As far as long-term goals are concerned, Jordan says he’s not so sure; he’d rather focus on what he’s learning and making right now. 

“It’s hard for me to visualize what could be when what I want to achieve in this moment hasn’t been fully realized yet,” he says.

Regardless of what could be — where his love of learning and creating will take him, what new mediums he’ll pick up or old ones he’ll shift his energy back to — Jordan says he’ll be fine. He’s sure of it. The life of an artist is what he’s chosen, and he’s confident it’ll all come together in his favor.

“It has to work out at some point, whether I’m in Monroe, Louisiana, and doing it or in another state doing it,” Jordan declares. “I’ve just got to keep going, and I do.”