James Plumb

I started drawing when I was eight years old, but except for about six months of lessons in my early teens, I had no formal training until my first year of college.

I received my BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and later my MFA from Brooklyn College where I studied with the artists Lennart Anderson and Philip Pearlstein. I also took as many art history classes as I could fit into my schedule from the outstanding faculty in that department. Later, I was fortunate to be one of twenty students selected from worldwide applications, to attend postgraduate studies at the Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer University in 2001. The emphasis was on the materials and methods of the 16th and 17th century European painters. This led to a great appreciation, not only of the illusions created by these artists, but also of the symbolism that enriches so much of their work. While it is impossible to turn back the clock, I feel that many of the concepts, so poetically expressed through the visual relationships in these paintings, are just as valid today. Also these ideas have a universal, timeless appeal that crosses cultural boundaries, producing surprising symbolic parallels. I draw on this visual heritage whenever possible.

I worked as curator of exhibitions at the Academy of the Arts in Easton, Maryland from 1978 to 1982. I began teaching art history at Chesapeake College in 1988, and in 1989. l soon became a full-time professor at the college as well as the department head, teaching both the studio and art history courses.

My work has been shown nationwide and has been included in several invitational shows. I have been fortunate to have won many awards in juried exhibitions and to have my work represented in private collections as well as the collection of the Academy Art Museum.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.