KINGSTON, Jamaica –Twenty-eight-year-old muralist, Jordan Harrison, is hoping his artwork inspires young people to overcome challenges they may face.

The Edna Manley graduate raved about the impact and opportunities art has provided and continues to provide him.

The muralist and fine-art artist has quite the resume, contributing to many notable murals in and around the Corporate Area.

The Jacks Hill native’s long list of finished works includes some of the murals at the world famous Sabina Park displaying Jamaican cricketers who made significant contributions to the sport; a mural of Sizzla Kalonji on Church Street and most recently, two murals of dancehall icons Lee Scratch Perry and Carlene Smith on East Street in downtown Kingston.

The passionate artist explains that while honing his skill, his love of art provided a gateway to escape his reality, and believes his creative pieces could provide an opportunity for younger generations to appreciate and understand artistry.

“The aim is to pretty much preserve culture while being able to pass on traditions to younger folks while inspiring [and] also use art as a means to get out mentally from certain situations,” he said.

A significant reason Harrison embarks on his creative journey is to “act as inspiration for the younger generation.”

“My aim is to captivate an individual in their natural environment as in what they do on a day-to-day basis [and] preserve it so future generations can see what it was like prior to them being here,” he added.

Harrison detailed the origin of his love for the creatives and recalls his first strides in this direction.

“It started pretty early from primary school, [I was] kind of just drawing animation characters and it further developed in high school with the guidance of my Visual Arts teacher, Stefan Harriot, and from there it just pretty much continued,” the 28-year-old told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Harrison’s first artwork was a commissioned piece from Sagicor done in Barbican, St Andrew.

In describing his style and creative process, he spoke about vibrance and incorporating it creatively within his pieces.

“What I do is try to go for a vibrant aesthetic, you can normally see like turquoise, magenta, very bright colours within my compositions, there’s usually a streak that is used to pretty much cut across the composition to create a level of dynamism, I also include stuff that pertains to the portrait I’m working with” Harrison explained.

Harrison credited other muralists as his inspiration such as Kito Mbiango, Koga One, and American muralist Ten Hun (Ten Hundred).

His words of wisdom to the aspiring muralist is, “Always research, research helps to fuel that creativity that we lack, always attempt to do your best, always try to develop with each work that you do and just go for it.”