Jim's Blog

I never had any formal artistic training. And I’m not sure it would have helped! You might call me self-taught, though I don’t know that’s really accurate. The truth is I was born with a God-given creativity that I think is more-or-less unteachable. It’s difficult to explain, but from a very early age it was inevitable that I was going to be an artist. And I was lucky enough to grow up in a family that understood and appreciated that. My parents created a home environment that fostered my creativity… even expected it. I think that’s because they were artistic themselves. My father was a woodworker, a craftsman with an incredible attention to detail. My mother was a tole painter and quilter who loved art and had an intuitive understanding of color, composition and the various elements that make good art. Her mother, my grandmother, was a master quilter, and probably the most gifted artist of the lot. She had that same natural-born, untaught artistic sensibility and understanding. She was a wonderful influence for a young artist and I admired everything she did. We had sort of an artistic bond, like kindred spirits despite the difference in age. So I didn’t so much learn to be an artist, I was born one. It’s all I ever was or wanted to be. And with that sort of gift I was lucky enough to have a family that understood, validated and even encouraged it.