Mona Jordan's obituary was like the woman herself, brief with words. Published on October 5, 1995, in the Brevard County newspaper, Florida Today, it read:
Mona L. Jordan, 86, a retired professional artist, died Thursday, September 28, in Annadale, Va.
A former resident of Indian Harbour Beach, Mrs. Jordan taught at Brevard Art Center and Museum and the Central Brevard Art Association in Cocoa.
She was a former member of the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery.
There are no local survivors.
What it leaves out is that for decades, Mona Jordan's highly individual, intuitive art made local art shows, museums, galleries and boardrooms, truly special places to be. Nor does it mention that her work had a reputation beyond the boundaries of Brevard County. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., purchased for the Environmental Protection Agency's collection her painting entitled "Bather with Symbolic Figure" (1970) which shows an overlarge man perched self-indulgently on a pristine beach sullied by his refuse of aluminum cans and the like. The Corcoran Gallery of Art purchased a 1948 painting depicting the destruction of post-war Japan. Her majestic "Seven Dreams" (1985), which won first prize in the Brevard Artists Space Experience — an Artists' Forum exhibition, hangs at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Appropriately, Mona was born in West Point, New York, where the prestigious United States Military Academy is located; a place where her grandfather, father, two brothers, husband, son and a grandson, all graduated. Her father was George A. Lynch, a 1903 USMA graduate, who reached the rank of major general, was a military attaché in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and later held the distinction of serving as the last Chief of Infantry for the United States Army. Her mother was Gladys Mona Chynoweth, the daughter of Otto Grethen Chynoweth, also a USMA graduate. Another grandson is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
On Christmas Day 1929 in Washington, D.C., she married Howell Hopson Jordan, a 1927 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Together they traveled the world and raised three children: Howell Hopson (Hal) Jordan, Jr., Gladys Mona Jordan, and Susan Lynch Jordan. In the mid-40's they lived in Tokyo, where Mona spent a lot of time painting. They retired to Brevard County, Florida, where they divorced in 1971, and Mona's career as an artist flourished.
Described as a woman of few words, she never talked much about her social or political views, which were not so much about politics as they were about man's inhumanity to man. Mona put her words into her paintings that carry far more range than her words ever could. She was born into a family known for its intelligence, courage and leadership, and believed that artists should be aware of what's going on in the world.
Her work demonstrates that she was an artist who had a full soul and uncensoring eye; willing to endure the pain of being socially and politically aware. She strongly believed that women should pursue their own destinies, and even wrote an article in 1986 in which she lamented the lack of recognition for women artists in the United States. Naturally, the feminist theme was expressed in a series of paintings, one of which was titled "Feminist No. 2" (1984).
When Mona retired from her artistic career and moved to Virginia, Arts Columnist Pam Harbaugh wrote in Florida Today on January 26, 1992:
Jordan's artwork reverberates with a life filled with the exultation of natural beauty, the rapture of artistic intuition and the torment of intellect.
Jordan's work is more than intuitive line, innovative design and beautifully skilled portraiture. It is also substantively intelligent.
Some of her most well regarded works deal with political, spiritual and social issues.
This is why the art outlives the artist and why there are local survivors.
Mona's son, Hal, passed away in 1992. Mona's non-local survivors are daughters, Gladys and Susan, three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Mona L. Jordan, 86, a retired professional artist, died Thursday, September 28, in Annadale, Va.
A former resident of Indian Harbour Beach, Mrs. Jordan taught at Brevard Art Center and Museum and the Central Brevard Art Association in Cocoa.
She was a former member of the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery.
There are no local survivors.
What it leaves out is that for decades, Mona Jordan's highly individual, intuitive art made local art shows, museums, galleries and boardrooms, truly special places to be. Nor does it mention that her work had a reputation beyond the boundaries of Brevard County. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., purchased for the Environmental Protection Agency's collection her painting entitled "Bather with Symbolic Figure" (1970) which shows an overlarge man perched self-indulgently on a pristine beach sullied by his refuse of aluminum cans and the like. The Corcoran Gallery of Art purchased a 1948 painting depicting the destruction of post-war Japan. Her majestic "Seven Dreams" (1985), which won first prize in the Brevard Artists Space Experience — an Artists' Forum exhibition, hangs at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Appropriately, Mona was born in West Point, New York, where the prestigious United States Military Academy is located; a place where her grandfather, father, two brothers, husband, son and a grandson, all graduated. Her father was George A. Lynch, a 1903 USMA graduate, who reached the rank of major general, was a military attaché in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and later held the distinction of serving as the last Chief of Infantry for the United States Army. Her mother was Gladys Mona Chynoweth, the daughter of Otto Grethen Chynoweth, also a USMA graduate. Another grandson is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
On Christmas Day 1929 in Washington, D.C., she married Howell Hopson Jordan, a 1927 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Together they traveled the world and raised three children: Howell Hopson (Hal) Jordan, Jr., Gladys Mona Jordan, and Susan Lynch Jordan. In the mid-40's they lived in Tokyo, where Mona spent a lot of time painting. They retired to Brevard County, Florida, where they divorced in 1971, and Mona's career as an artist flourished.
Described as a woman of few words, she never talked much about her social or political views, which were not so much about politics as they were about man's inhumanity to man. Mona put her words into her paintings that carry far more range than her words ever could. She was born into a family known for its intelligence, courage and leadership, and believed that artists should be aware of what's going on in the world.
Her work demonstrates that she was an artist who had a full soul and uncensoring eye; willing to endure the pain of being socially and politically aware. She strongly believed that women should pursue their own destinies, and even wrote an article in 1986 in which she lamented the lack of recognition for women artists in the United States. Naturally, the feminist theme was expressed in a series of paintings, one of which was titled "Feminist No. 2" (1984).
When Mona retired from her artistic career and moved to Virginia, Arts Columnist Pam Harbaugh wrote in Florida Today on January 26, 1992:
Jordan's artwork reverberates with a life filled with the exultation of natural beauty, the rapture of artistic intuition and the torment of intellect.
Jordan's work is more than intuitive line, innovative design and beautifully skilled portraiture. It is also substantively intelligent.
Some of her most well regarded works deal with political, spiritual and social issues.
This is why the art outlives the artist and why there are local survivors.
Mona's son, Hal, passed away in 1992. Mona's non-local survivors are daughters, Gladys and Susan, three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Mona Jordan's obituary was like the woman herself, brief with words. Published on October 5, 1995, in the Brevard County newspaper, Florida Today, it read:
Mona L. Jordan, 86, a retired professional artist, died Thursday, September 28, in Annadale, Va.
A former resident of Indian Harbour Beach, Mrs. Jordan taught at Brevard Art Center and Museum and the Central Brevard Art Association in Cocoa.
She was a former member of the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery.
There are no local survivors.
What it leaves out is that for decades, Mona Jordan's highly individual, intuitive art made local art shows, museums, galleries and boardrooms, truly special places to be. Nor does it mention that her work had a reputation beyond the boundaries of Brevard County. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., purchased for the Environmental Protection Agency's collection her painting entitled "Bather with Symbolic Figure" (1970) which shows an overlarge man perched self-indulgently on a pristine beach sullied by his refuse of aluminum cans and the like. The Corcoran Gallery of Art purchased a 1948 painting depicting the destruction of post-war Japan. Her majestic "Seven Dreams" (1985), which won first prize in the Brevard Artists Space Experience — an Artists' Forum exhibition, hangs at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Appropriately, Mona was born in West Point, New York, where the prestigious United States Military Academy is located; a place where her grandfather, father, two brothers, husband, son and a grandson, all graduated. Her father was George A. Lynch, a 1903 USMA graduate, who reached the rank of major general, was a military attaché in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and later held the distinction of serving as the last Chief of Infantry for the United States Army. Her mother was Gladys Mona Chynoweth, the daughter of Otto Grethen Chynoweth, also a USMA graduate. Another grandson is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
On Christmas Day 1929 in Washington, D.C., she married Howell Hopson Jordan, a 1927 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Together they traveled the world and raised three children: Howell Hopson (Hal) Jordan, Jr., Gladys Mona Jordan, and Susan Lynch Jordan. In the mid-40's they lived in Tokyo, where Mona spent a lot of time painting. They retired to Brevard County, Florida, where they divorced in 1971, and Mona's career as an artist flourished.
Described as a woman of few words, she never talked much about her social or political views, which were not so much about politics as they were about man's inhumanity to man. Mona put her words into her paintings that carry far more range than her words ever could. She was born into a family known for its intelligence, courage and leadership, and believed that artists should be aware of what's going on in the world.
Her work demonstrates that she was an artist who had a full soul and uncensoring eye; willing to endure the pain of being socially and politically aware. She strongly believed that women should pursue their own destinies, and even wrote an article in 1986 in which she lamented the lack of recognition for women artists in the United States. Naturally, the feminist theme was expressed in a series of paintings, one of which was titled "Feminist No. 2" (1984).
When Mona retired from her artistic career and moved to Virginia, Arts Columnist Pam Harbaugh wrote in Florida Today on January 26, 1992:
Jordan's artwork reverberates with a life filled with the exultation of natural beauty, the rapture of artistic intuition and the torment of intellect.
Jordan's work is more than intuitive line, innovative design and beautifully skilled portraiture. It is also substantively intelligent.
Some of her most well regarded works deal with political, spiritual and social issues.
This is why the art outlives the artist and why there are local survivors.
Mona's son, Hal, passed away in 1992. Mona's non-local survivors are daughters, Gladys and Susan, three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Mona L. Jordan, 86, a retired professional artist, died Thursday, September 28, in Annadale, Va.
A former resident of Indian Harbour Beach, Mrs. Jordan taught at Brevard Art Center and Museum and the Central Brevard Art Association in Cocoa.
She was a former member of the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery.
There are no local survivors.
What it leaves out is that for decades, Mona Jordan's highly individual, intuitive art made local art shows, museums, galleries and boardrooms, truly special places to be. Nor does it mention that her work had a reputation beyond the boundaries of Brevard County. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., purchased for the Environmental Protection Agency's collection her painting entitled "Bather with Symbolic Figure" (1970) which shows an overlarge man perched self-indulgently on a pristine beach sullied by his refuse of aluminum cans and the like. The Corcoran Gallery of Art purchased a 1948 painting depicting the destruction of post-war Japan. Her majestic "Seven Dreams" (1985), which won first prize in the Brevard Artists Space Experience — an Artists' Forum exhibition, hangs at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Appropriately, Mona was born in West Point, New York, where the prestigious United States Military Academy is located; a place where her grandfather, father, two brothers, husband, son and a grandson, all graduated. Her father was George A. Lynch, a 1903 USMA graduate, who reached the rank of major general, was a military attaché in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and later held the distinction of serving as the last Chief of Infantry for the United States Army. Her mother was Gladys Mona Chynoweth, the daughter of Otto Grethen Chynoweth, also a USMA graduate. Another grandson is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
On Christmas Day 1929 in Washington, D.C., she married Howell Hopson Jordan, a 1927 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Together they traveled the world and raised three children: Howell Hopson (Hal) Jordan, Jr., Gladys Mona Jordan, and Susan Lynch Jordan. In the mid-40's they lived in Tokyo, where Mona spent a lot of time painting. They retired to Brevard County, Florida, where they divorced in 1971, and Mona's career as an artist flourished.
Described as a woman of few words, she never talked much about her social or political views, which were not so much about politics as they were about man's inhumanity to man. Mona put her words into her paintings that carry far more range than her words ever could. She was born into a family known for its intelligence, courage and leadership, and believed that artists should be aware of what's going on in the world.
Her work demonstrates that she was an artist who had a full soul and uncensoring eye; willing to endure the pain of being socially and politically aware. She strongly believed that women should pursue their own destinies, and even wrote an article in 1986 in which she lamented the lack of recognition for women artists in the United States. Naturally, the feminist theme was expressed in a series of paintings, one of which was titled "Feminist No. 2" (1984).
When Mona retired from her artistic career and moved to Virginia, Arts Columnist Pam Harbaugh wrote in Florida Today on January 26, 1992:
Jordan's artwork reverberates with a life filled with the exultation of natural beauty, the rapture of artistic intuition and the torment of intellect.
Jordan's work is more than intuitive line, innovative design and beautifully skilled portraiture. It is also substantively intelligent.
Some of her most well regarded works deal with political, spiritual and social issues.
This is why the art outlives the artist and why there are local survivors.
Mona's son, Hal, passed away in 1992. Mona's non-local survivors are daughters, Gladys and Susan, three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
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