Member Spotlight: Jim Bryant

I call myself a “Texlahoman”, because I was born just across the State line, in Oklahoma, but was raised in Texas and have spent most of my life, here. I grew up in the Panhandle and South Plains of Texas and that is where I have drawn inspiration for many of my sculptures. Combining my love of history, with my love of sculpture, I usually create figurative works with a historical aspect to them. I have done some portrait and commission work, but I find that working from old stories and photographs of people who have made an impact through their lives is most satisfying to me. When I create historical figures, there are often few or no photographs to work from, and I must rely on descriptions in biographies or simply imagine the way they might have appeared.

I have expressed myself in art, since I was a young boy. As most children, I drew pictures and painted in school, but the first time I picked up some modeling clay and made a small sculpture of a squirrel for a science diorama, I was hooked. Sculpture is not always the form of art emphasized in public school or in general art courses, so I had to seek education in artist workshops and seminars around the country.

I usually work in oil-based clay, with the intention of casting the figures in bronze or other solid permanent form. I also work in polymer clay, which can be hardened at a relatively low temperature, but that medium has its limitations in preserving texture and detail, accurately.

I haven’t shown my work as often as some artists, because I have not produced a large body of work in a final form. That is, it is in non-drying oil clay, not yet cast in a permanent form. I have had some recent success in showing and sales of my completed works, having won 1st place in the Rockwall Art League 2018 Fall Show, in sculpture. I have some of my works in private collections and on public display, in the area and some in corporate collections in other states. I hope to have more new works ready for display soon, so I can share more of my artistic pursuits.