* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Richard W. James is from rural Tennessee and received his B.F.A. from The University of Tennessee at Martin in 2001. For 8 years he ran his own pottery studio until 2010-2012 when he attended Indiana University as a special student to pursue his interest in sculpture. Richard received his M.F.A. in ceramics from The University of Kansas in May 2016 and was a 2015 summer artist-in-resident at Zhenrutang in Jingdezhen, China. Richard served as a 2016-2017 resident at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and will be a long-term Archie Bray Foundation resident beginning August 2017.
Richard explains his work by saying, “My work explores the discrepancy between how we, as humans, see ourselves versus how we want others to see us. I am curious about how the aggregate nature of personality and memory construction affects the sense of self, and by extension, interaction with the world around us. Because “an unexamined life is not worth living,” I feel the need to question the basic detritus that has coalesced into what I refer to as “myself.” I do that in my studio practice by incorporating materials and processes that I associate with the informative years of my youth, growing up within a poor, rural upbringing”.
