James Coates
Artist Overview

Jim Coates was born in 1946 in Phoenix Arizona and because his father was a millitary person he traveled every few years until his senior yesr in high school. At college, Arizona State University, he majored in art education and was about to begin teaching when uncle sam came knocking. After the army he attended SF Art Instittue, graduating with a BFA in sculpture in 1971. While in San Francisco he was heavily influenced by certain Bay area artists' "visionary" work. He received his MFA in sculpture at the University of Oregon in Eugene, his sculptures a blend of collected influences, including a new found interest in light and optics; also, he continued his drawings and print making. While working in the mail room at the Phoenix Art Museum he had a chance to explore the museum collection, it was at this point he decided to become a painter, but other concerns took hold...money. Looking to continue his studies and sqeeze the last out of his GI bill he applied for and was accepted into Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico. After a year of intense studies in art of the litho print he migrated back up to Northwest, where he landed several CETA jobs doing art for the city of Portland. These jobs included a series of lithos for the city and a large outdoor sculpture, that projected light images via lenses onto an inner surface imbedded in the piece, for one of the local colleges. While in Junuea Alaska, his next destination, these projected images became the source of his paintings (which he was finally able to begin). His interest in optics lead to studies in both depth psychology and a branch of philosophy called phenomenology. Also, while working in the Alaska state prison in Junuea he noticed the power of behavioral psychology in influencing human behavior; these would be his three primary influences in all the work that followed. In 1986, after finishing a series of 10 landscape paintings that explored these ideas Jim packed his belongings and moved to New York in a 10 year old Datsun Pickup. In New York, Jim painted continuously while teaching middle school art (20 years), and his studies in phenomenology lead to a Doctorate of Arts at New York University, where his committee and advisors enriched his philosophical and art vocabulary beyond anything he had previously experienced. After having little success with city galleries Jim left New York and opened up his own gallery called Copper Mine Picture Cafe in Miami, Arizona.