James Biesecker
James Biesecker is an American artist who paints in oils and lives and works in Stanwood, Washington. He graduated from the University of Chicago where most of his training was scientific and medical. Simultaneously he was self-taught in art, and he paints usually in a post-impressionistic style. His paintings utilize light and color with bold strokes of paint in a vibrant and dynamic style. The content of the paintings include portraits, still life and garden scenes.
Although James’ paintings display realistic subjects, in them reside his expressions of color, texture and vibrant light. The combination of these elements invites the observer to use their imagination and personal energy to question and propose meaning and depth of understanding for the art. The vigor of the paintings is meant to be pleasing and yet a bit disturbing.
The purpose of the paintings is to establish a new post-impressionistic style that is engaging and creative, one that challenges and dares the observer to appreciate and be part of the art.
As a self-taught artist, exhibition of James’ works is limited. It is now time, however, to display these for all to appreciate.
James is currently an M.D., Ph.D, a part-time farmer of grapevines and one who spends most of his time thinking about painting. He spent 50+ years as a scientific professional. During this time he pursued learning about the technique and expression of the great painters.
My art is an invitation for others to experience. The paintings encourage participation to escape and be a component and life of the art. To feel the color of the oils, to be transported into another being, to enjoy the opportunity to be magic with imagination and memory. From this you can learn more; there is no right or wrong, just the exhilaration and chance to be a part of someone else or some thing else, if only for a moment.
The Story
I am an early and late blooming artist. When I was six years old, I painted in oils a picture of a mountain with a waterfall, at which my friends appropriately laughed and giggled. Totally embarrassed, I put down my little brush into retirement for 32 years.
My middle life then unfolded, and I pursued science and medicine followed by decades of business, at which I was reasonably good. There I spent college and graduate and post-graduate times chasing complex concepts that were fun, but not totally fulfilling. While I was a medical Intern and Resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital and University, I did pathology during the day and drank cheap bourbon and painted after midnight into the wee hours of the morning. In New York during a cancer fellowship at Memorial-Sloan Kettering and The Village, I fought with the Bohemian diversions of abstraction and thought more about the more traditional ideas and techniques of the impressionists. These academic endeavors were abundant, but they did not address all my inner passions, much less my inner demons. So went my early educational life.
Loitering in the back of my mind was and is art. Art hides in the shadows, peeks out now and then, and suddenly screams for focus and attention. Not being able to resist such seduction, after three decades and jiving into the late 60’s, I was back into painting, and flowering of art was afoot. There were issues. At the University of Chicago, science was demanding; yet for me painting must have its place. Following my heart and trying to divide passions between science and art, I thrashed forward. Little did I know that by meeting my future wife, Kate, I would subsequently end up on the West Coast and dividing my time between medicine, family and art, and attempting to satisfy that hungry monster of painting while serving other mistresses of family and life.
So here I am later, almost an octogenarian and trying to paint good stuff. The angel of excitement of learning from the impressionists and post-impressionists fo me is thrilling. Using pure and often complementary colors, employing bold stokes of paint, and attempting to add dimension and meaning make a day. The demon to slay each moment is to produce the art better than that of the past. Of course, real life does not go away. Simultaneously in an attempt to master the mundane , I am also a farmer of sorts and have planted bunches of grapevines, Pinot Noir, clones 777 and Precoce.
Now a bit late in the game, the challenge is to go the distance and create more better than before. In that process, I would like others to engage, think, and participate with opinions. We will see.
