Drawing Strength: Artist creates at prolific rate, despite deteriorating health

November 27, 2012
by
1 min read

This story will break your heart.

It will leave you contemplating mortality and the meaning of suffering. It will plumb the depths of the human spirit and the parent/child bond. And it will ask, a number of times, that age-old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

But Jordie Hudson doesn’t care about that schmaltzy nonsense. Though she is in what seems to be the closing chapter of a decade-long battle with meningitis, though her head and face are plagued with tumors, though her body has been ravaged by heavy doses of medication, she doesn’t want your pity. What Hudson wants you to know is that, in the throes of her illness, she is still making art. Big, bold, powerful art.

It’s just after 9 on a chilly November morning. The sky is clear and blue, and Lincolnville, that sleepy little St. Augustine village, is pleasantly silent. A blue jay squawks, a scooter zips by, but it’s mostly silent.

In the kitchen of a white two-story in the heart of Lincolnville, a different kind of silence falls. There, in a chair in her mom’s knickknack-laden kitchen, slumps Hudson. Eyes narrowed, shoulders hunched, head drooping, she lists to her right as she does her best to compose a few sentences. An army of prescription bottles litters a small table, their contents only partially responsible for her languorous state.

Hudson’s mother, diminutive but wide-eyed and energetic Judy Allen, says, “Jordie didn’t sleep at all last night.” She says Hudson fell a half-dozen times — probably more — during the restless evening.

Hudson is struggling to piece together her past, half-slurring, half-mumbling about her time at art schools in North Carolina and Boston. It’s a fuzzy chronology, a crazy-quilt of anecdotes about her devoted yet sexually abusive father, her gay and physically abusive art instructor, her careers as performance artist, model and visual artist. Then, as if a shroud has been lifted, she says with clarity and strength, “You can be as handicapped as you wanna be, and you can still draw like a motherfucker.”

And there, in one direct statement, resides the soul of Jordie Hudson.

Folio is your guide to entertainment and culture around and near Jacksonville, Florida. We cover events, concerts, restaurants, theatre, sports, art, happenings, and all things about living and visiting Jax. Folio serves more than two million readers across Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, including St. Augustine, The Beaches, and Fernandina.

Folio Weekly
Previous Story

Hometown Love

Next Story

Feat of Revitalizing Clay

Latest from Uncategorized

New Music Monthly

Words by Carmen Macri National June 4 Jon Bellion – “Father Figure” The contemporary pop artist who brought us the 2016 hit “All Time Low” is back with a slick, heartfelt track about legacy and stepping up. It’s Bellion doing what he does best—big sound, bigger meaning. 

MY FAIR LADY is absolutely Loverly at the Alhambra

Aaaooo, why can’t the English learn to speak?!  With a lively opening full of Cockney dialect, this fun transaction sets the stage for a bet between Henry Higgins (Gary Lee Webber) and Colonel Pickering (Andy Moritz) that Higgins can’t take a guttersnipe like Eliza Doolittle (Sofia Smith) and turn her

Carole King is BEAUTIFUL at the Alhambra

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL focuses on thirteen (1958-1971) years in a longer career, and it showcases not only Carole the singer/songwriter, but her first major writing partner, a second writing duo who were competitors and friends, as well as some of the numerous artists that actually recorded their varied

LES MISERABLES is a Tapestry of Sight and Sound

If you love opera, you’ll love LES MISERABLES.  If you don’t love opera, you’ll love LES MISERABLES.  The original story was written in the 1800’s by author and artist Victor Hugo, then adapted in 1980 into a French sung-through musical by Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil.  Five years later, it was

AIR SUPPLY does it All Out of Love at The Florida Theatre

With enduring sounds that tug at heartstrings, duo AIR SUPPLY (with fans fondly known as Airheads) will be live at the Florida Theatre April 11th, 2025.  This is one month before the May 13th celebration of the 50th anniversary of the partnership between singer-songwriter/guitarist Graham Russell and lead vocalist Russell
July 5th Cleanup
GoUp