09/02/2020
The Helper Project Presents: AMERICAN CROSSROADS
www.thehelperproject.net
JANELL JAMES is our Featured Artist of the Week!
Bachelor of Science, University of Utah, 1998
Bay Area Classical Artist’s Atelier, California, 2006-08
Studio Escalier, Paris France, 2008
(b. 1974) Utah is my place of birth, residency and continual adventure. I love to hike and run the mountainous trails, smell the minerals of the earth on a rainy day, the decay of leaves from the trees hibernating through winter, and listen to the crunch of the snow as I move along in this nature wonderland. It is the four seasons that I long for as I watch the colors of the trees change from brown to bright yellow and lush green. Traveling and camping with my dogs, we can go off in any four directions in this beautiful state and discover something new. Some terrain feels like we have just left the planet and landed on the moon, other places take us back in time to the days of the Anasazi Indians, and some places are so wild you can hear the coyotes, see the rattlesnakes and watch wild horse.
It is a land full of abstractions and color. My eye has been especially drawn to the way the trees press against the sky. It has always been these shapes that capture my heart making me want to express the way I see the landscape. Seeing nature through this abstracting lens has allowed me many opportunities to explore my vision. As I continually absorb the abstract in nature around me, I am inspired by the many ways in which I am called to create.
