Today we’d like to introduce you to James Behan.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I am a dual citizen with Ireland and the United States, and currently live and work in the South Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas.
I have always loved making images. My photography is both documentary and allegorical. In the documenting of what is present before me and my camera, larger, more universal narratives emerge. These narratives are about the desires inherent in human experience: happiness or sorrow, success or failure, hope or despair, gain or loss—these desires drive us to create the world we inhabit. In every visual effort, I strive to find beauty in all its expressions. Above all, color holds sway.
My educational experience includes a BFA from University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, where I studied photography under noted national photographer MK Simqu. I completed my education with an MFA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas. I am currently a Professor of Art at Mountain View College, Dallas, Texas. I believe strongly in the studio method of instruction, of passing on what I learned from my mentors to my own students. This method creates a lineage of artists and artistry that grounds both my efforts as an instructor and a maker of visual images and objects.
Please tell us about your art.
I create a wide range of art, including documentary photography, photomontage, painting, sculpture, mixed media, conceptual art and installation. In effort artistic effort, whether photography, painting or sculpture, or mixed media, I pursue the element of color; I find it the most visually interesting thing ever before me. The message behind my work is simple: we are here, and we make a difference in this world. I document presence. What I hope people take away from my work is that every human experience has value, and that every voice is worth hearing and every vision worth seeing. We matter.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
The characteristic essential to success as an artist is confidence in one’s own artistic vision. One has to be convinced that what one sees is visually important, and valuable for others to see. There must be, with every impulse to create a work of art, a sense of wonder for the artist. That wonder, combined with confidence, creates a passion to work that inevitably leads to success, which I define as a unique, interesting visual portfolio or record of how one sees.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I exhibit regularly locally, including recent group exhibitions at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, Texas (October 2017), and the Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas (December 2017), and a solo exhibition at the Janette Kennedy Gallery at Southside on Lamar (January 2018). My work will next be seen at Mountain View College in a group faculty exhibition in April, 2018.
People can see my work via my website (behanworks.com) and follow me on Instagram (jbehan06).
Contact Info:
- Website: behanworks.com
- Instagram: jbehan06
Image Credit:
James Behan, Janice Franklin, Kevin Todora
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