I have been involved in the arts in a serious way since high school, possibly even before then. Initially I started drawing by sketching cartoon characters by looking at particular images. I recall being excited that I was able to duplicate an images as it was drawn by the professional who produced work that I admired and respected. I continued to draw until I was able to draw some images without having to look at another image, using my imagination completely. From drawing I became interested in Photography, but mostly landscape sites, sights of nature and abstract constructs. It was also around this time that I became interested in web development and joined the web development team at my high school. Here we were in charge of developing and maintaining website information for the school. I started to learn Photoshop and other web development and image/graphic editing softwares during this time. After high school and upon entering college, my activities in the arts ceased. I was not involved in any art other than creative writing and music production during this time, along with regular course work for Criminal Justice and psychology. My primary focus became the coursework for my degree. It was while studying these fields that I began to realize that my passion and calling was in the arts. To my surprise all of the art activities and skills I loved when I was young were very much still intact once I started working again. I noticed improvements in all areas and decided that since my love and passion resided within the arts that Arts would then become my life's work. Not just the production of, but the appreciation and immersion of various artistic cultures and the process of developing and creating and fostering mind states conducive to the productive creative processes.
Markell James joined Fine Art America on May 7th, 2016.
