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A passion for
painting and a love for the Arkansas landscape Jim is
comfortable painting in most any media in a wide range of
subject matter. Living by his faith in Jesus Christ, Jim finds
peace and joy in the living of this life. He credits his
Creator with all that is wonderful and beautiful in the universe
and gives Him the glory in all things. Beauty is truly
subjective to each person. Jim is struck by the abundance of
the natural beauty one can find once they are willing to open
their minds eye and look. He feels there is no greater part of
the world to find it than right here in the “natural?state. “I
love this state, its people and its wealth of visual pleasures.
Jim has studied art
as an art major in high school, the University of Wisconsin, the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Central
Arkansas, and numerous studies with other artists. The artist
has won numerous art awards and honors. His art is part of
public and private collections around the world. When asked
about one of his most memorable art related experiences. Jim
refers to the three years he spent teaching the late Jackson T.
Stephens painting in the style of the impressionist. A portrait
painting he did of the late Jackson T. Stephens just before his
passing featuring Mr. Stephens and Arnold Palmer the golf pro
visiting at the First Tee of Arkansas. Currently Jim is an
expressive art specialist with Birch Tree Communities, Inc.
teaching a therapeutic arts program which he designed and
integrated into the day treatment program serving nearly Three
Hundred adults with acute mental illness. Working with the
mentally ill has been one of the greater experiences in Jim’s
life. Jim’s great desire is that the community might embrace
people with mental illness in a way that allows them to
participate in the culture of the community in which they live
to the greatest extent possible. Jim’s seizes opportunities to
play a small part in helping reduce the stigma attached to those
suffering with mental illness.
Jim has spread his
belief that the arts are for everyone regardless of age,
education, or social status. Jim put legs on that conviction
when he was recruited by a social worker while majoring in fine
art at the University of Central Arkansas to teach inner city
children art. That was the beginning of an art teaching career
that has spanned nearly forty years. Jim began his arts career
with the City of North Little Rock, Arkansas and spent the next
ten years developing the arts through the Parks and Recreation
Department as art director. During the peak of the cities arts
program their were some 500 men, women and children taking some
form of art instruction at the cities five recreation centers.
During the early years Jim co-founded the Arkansas League of
Arkansas and served as its first president for the first five
years. The ALA is a grass roots organization established for the
specific purpose of promoting the philosophy that the arts are
for everyone regardless of age, gender or economic status.
The ALA is still active and going strong now nearly forty years
later. Also in the mid seventies Jim initiated the Annual Burns
Park Arts and Crafts Fair that at it’s peak attracted nearly
fifty thousand visitors to view some three hundred exhibiting
artists from all over the mid west.
Jim enjoys
sketching caricatures on location at private parties, corporate
picnics and festivals. His drawings are created using limited
broad point permanent ink lines capturing a positive profile
likeness of attendees in as little as one to two minutes.
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