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Biography of James Flanagan

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Jim was educated at Art Students League, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts in New York City. After military service and working several years as an art director and graphic designer, Jim was lured to Arizona with a teaching job in the Department of Fine Arts at ASU. Eventually he became bored watching other people work and resumed his career as creative director for various marketing and publishing firms around the country. Jim didn’t begin to paint seriously until his late 30s and his very first painting, a semi-abstract still life, was accepted in the tough-juried Four Corners Biennial show at the Phoenix Art Museum. Although Jim hasn’t bothered with competitions since, his work, appreciated mainly for his versatility and masterful use of color, is included in private collections throughout the United States and in Great Britain.

“The main reason I paint is simply to add, in a small way, some beauty to a world in dire need of it. I’m not as concerned with subject matter as I am with design and color and I’m always striving, through seemingly endless overpainting, to bring a picture to the point where it seems to generate its own light and feeds the heart as well as the eyes.”