Art

Item Description

16" x 20" unframed family watercolor portrait from Masiv Studios Tustin

About the Artist: I began drawing as a toddler, on the walls of the house. In grade school, I would win competitions in art and even gave a presentation to another class about my art in the fourth grade. Friends were envious of my ability, but I would teach them how to draw Snoopy. The Irvine High School principal observed I had great talent while I was drawing a portrait in detention and told me I could go far with my art. My talents developed at Orange Coast College, and when my mom told me she would fund my art school education, I jumped on it. I grew up in Irvine, California and attended Academy of Art University in San Francisco for Illustration and Animation in '94. I drew everyday for at least six hours in and out of class, and became fascinated with movement and animation. Anatomy teacher and sculptor Thomas Marsh influenced my purpose when he said that we do portraits to portray the human spirit, and I began to understand why I loved Rockwell and John Singer Sargent so much. Sculpture was beginning to become a passion, but I put that on the back burner. Circumstances brought me to Arizona State University on a Pell Grant. I was to study Art Education as a major, but was plagued by the guilt of abandoning my dreams, and switched my major to sculpture. It was terrifying and very exciting. The ASU Art Department really focused on concept, and combined with my fine technical training, my art bloomed. I graduated in 2003 with a BFA in Sculpture. I wanted to teach art then, but an art teacher told me that getting lots of experience as an artist would benefit students the most. I took an abstract watercolor class in Scottsdale that really stretched my boundaries and forced me to deconstruct my academic thinking, and it was difficult until the teacher, Dick Phillips, told us that abstract elements combined with realism can be very energetic and exciting. He also mentioned that not every part of the painting has to say something. Another very influential moment came when talking to a zen monk about art. He told me that sometimes the purpose of art is to manifest color. I began to do portraits of houses in the old Tempe neighborhoods, but I longed to be back in Southern California. In January of 2005, I moved there, and was homeless for 11 months. I would take hikes along the California Coast and paint with a black bound 5" by 7" notebook, a travel watercolor set, and a mini spray bottle of water in my cargo pants. I spent many days and hours trying to do quick little sketches of the beach and sky, especially at sunset. Exhilarating. Everyone who saw my work told me to do the paintings bigger. I had the opportunity to paint the mission statement for the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen on their wall, and it was covered by the OC Register. I resisted going bigger until I moved into a little apartment in Costa Mesa, where I found an easel, paints and canvas in the closet. When I asked my landlord about it, she said that they had been there for the past 3 years, and if I wanted them, they were mine. Amazing. I began a painting that was to take me over 300 hours to complete, the Hotel Laguna. I enjoyed working on progressively bigger and bigger canvases. I displayed my artwork at Dana Point Physical Therapy, where I worked as a massage therapist. Massaging deep into the human body has helped me understand the human body tremendously. It was at the therapy office that I sold much more artwork than I ever had in my life. I was making framed giclee prints of my work, and getting commissions from the clients. This mentally boosted what I previously believed possible in my human potential. My website,www.thecreatorjames.com was part of this expansion. Now I work painting and sculpting commissions and in my home studio in Tustin, California.