Postmodern Gypsy

By Jordan H Poole

Jordan Poole, a Millennial and an Artist from Appalachian Georgia, takes off to explore the backroads of America in this decade of the 2020's. He finds an undercurrent of American counterculture's survival along the path. Travel with him and Priscilla and find hope paved with the open road.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jordan Poole
• Release date: Jul 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798330205103

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Ever since I could hold a pencil I was drawing something. I have always been observing things to draw, paint or photograph ever since I can remember. I was also born in a place that seems to hold on to traditions and customs of living a little longer than other places. I am from the mountains of Northwest Georgia from a little town called Summerville.

As a child I would go hunting often. I remember sitting in a tree stand with the unique perspective of being alone in the woods as the sun arose in the morning deep in those hills and mountains where I grew up. Early breaking light would cast odd tricks to the eyes for an imaginative kid in the woods. I would remain silent and still as I tried my best to be a good hunter yet I was horrible at it. It wasn't in my nature to sit still but I tried my best.

In the silence and in the still, my creative mind would just take to create vivid stories for my own entertainment. My own private stories and images in my head. I remember one time particularly sitting by an old oak tree deep in the woods and seeing what might have been droplets of water at daybreak but to me those drops of water became a string of pearls nestled in a tree. By the time the sun had fully come up I had created in my mind the story that the explorer Ponce de Leon on his way through the area had dropped a pearl necklace that was intended for Queen Isabella. The strand through time had grown into the branches of the old tree before me and never been discovered. The necklace survived all that time draped on a branch deep in the woods. My imagination kept me going.

I grew up tending a vegetable garden each summer. The vegetables were canned in glass jars or put up for winter. I grew up going fishing before I could tie my shoes. I did not go to a preschool, rather I stayed with my Maw Maw during the days until I entered primary school. The formative years of my mind were very much impacted by the traditions and stories of the agrarian American South. I guess I just have always looked at things different from most of the world due to the unique way I came to become myself. I have always had an accent. I have always had strong roots as a part of my character. That and a strong will. Always looking at things as an artist from the mountains of Georgia.

I have been blessed with a life so far that has been full. I got a scholarship to an international Art School. I studied how to preserve and restore historic buildings. I later came to be in charge of managing restorations at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home and the most visited historic site in America. I returned to my home state and was passionate and active about saving the most endangered places throughout the state of Georgia. I thereafter moved back to my hometown and founded a not for profit organization and saved an incredible historic art environment, Paradise Garden, built by folk artist, Howard Finster. Then I moved to France for a spell.

After returning from living abroad ,I came to find things were changing in America, especially for a Millennial. It seemed that people were viewed more and more as disposable. People were so very much looked at as easy to replace as a concept of a changing time. I became disenchanted.

Some folks take up running marathons to find their strength within. I had a different journey in mind. I wanted to travel the real America off the beaten path. It paved hope within me again.

I gave myself a year to circumnavigate the United States. The way I saw it, I could either be dead broke, stuck working a job that I found drab and pointless, or be dead broke on the road and pick up odd jobs

Reviews for Postmodern Gypsy

[jordan.h.poole · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This journey through photos and stories is a fun experience to read.