Jim was born in Oakland, California and currently resides in SE Portland, OR. Sculpting, drawing and photography have been Jim’s primary creative outlets. Poetry, harmonica and guitar are also mainstays in Jim’s creative activities.

Sculpting is Jim’s artistic ‘first love. ’ His approach is easily labeled “classical realism” with its emphasis on accuracy of form, refined details, and integrated composition. His sculptures are also characterized by their simplicity and depth of emotion.

Jim has worked with a variety of media including stone, plaster, clay and wax. Several pieces have been cast in bronze and in bonded-marble.

Sculptor heroes for Jim include August Rodin, Camille Claudel, Ivan Mestrovic, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Alphonse Mucha.

Art is the substance of my life. I've always had a natural affinity for the aesthetic experience. It has been a thread throughout my life that has lead me to the art work I'm doing today and the many projects patiently waiting their turn.

I can remember building forts in the late '50's as a young boy in Berkeley, California. My friends and I would gather scraps of wood and construct forts alongside the garage next to the neighbor's fence. Some how it was understood that I was the one that knew what the fort should look like. I remember periodically standing back from our work, with my hand to my chin, frowning in concentration; my friends would hold up a scrap of wood and call out, "Jim, should I put this here?" I'd turn my head this way and that, judging the best placement. "That's good, but a little higher, though. Maybe use that longer piece over there." This was my role in the construction; I somehow seemed to know how it all fit together.

Another hint of my creative instincts was in 1959 as I traveled by bus with my mother and siblings to visit relatives in Guatemala. Late one evening we made a routine stop at a bus terminal in Mexico. I remember glancing out the window of the bus as we waited our turn to exit the bus. Through the murky light I saw a road winding up and over a low hill. It seemed a dry and shrub less countryside with a few houses randomly marking the slope of the hill. I was shocked when I came out the bus and stood before a high wall! The bus station was parallel to the bus. My hillside, road and houses were a pattern I "saw" on the stucco wall.

Just as that young boy found inspiration on a stucco wall, I still find inspiration everywhere around me in the simple objects, experiences and situations of everyday life. The cloud activity in the sky is a marvel of continuous organic abstract shapes. We live in a universe of patterns, textures, sounds and color that provide an endless source of creative inspiration.

Sculpture has captivated me for many years. I made my first sculpture when I was a teenager; it was a wax cast of my hand. My enthusiasm was such that I dipped my hand into a vat of hot molten wax and let it dry, then repeated the process several times until I had a mold and a very painful, somewhat burnt hand! I poured plaster into the wax mold, peeled the wax away and viola', a sculpture! I was so proud of my work that even the pain from an almost 2nd degree burn was worth it.

Inspiration, however, is just the beginning, the 'trail head' to creativity. After inspiration, the concept must take form and after that, continuous troubleshooting until you get it just "right". Creating artwork is a process and a great deal of that process is work. Work is work; there isn't much you can romanticize about that. This part of the process includes many hours of solitude and focused attention.

I thoroughly enjoy shaping clay into forms. I can't say why, but the human form is a real draw for me. For some reason, realistic, in-the-round sculpture is what I love to do. Perhaps it has to do with challenge. I'm challenged to pull it all together: proportion, integration of the elements and the toughest part of all: detailing. The last sixteen, twenty hours of sculpture are the toughest, but also, the most satisfying!

Art will always be the substance of my life. It is a multi-faceted experience. There is no single definition of what art is or what it means to be an artist. Years ago when I was a student at California College of Arts several of the instructors alluded to the artist's life style as a way of perceiving reality, a consciousness unfolding moment to moment. Years of experience has taught me that their wise commentary on art was truly close to the mark.

Jim Ayala - August, 2007