My Work
I'm James Coffman, an artist and designer. My work reaches back to the roots of humanity and pulls from feelings we can all relate to regardless of country, culture, or language. The elements reflected, the sun, moon, people, animals, natural events, all things from early man that are deep in all of us. Modern life is entirely saturated by sound, light, and movement, its inescapable. My work attempts to serve as a reprieve. Hopefully, as a breath and a feeling that connects you to something that's always been there.
My Backstory
I was born in Portland, Oregon. The son of an art teacher and baseball coach for the Oakland A’s. My life revolved around these two focuses, traveling through small towns, minor league parks, and riding team buses in the summers with my dad. Drawing, painting, and building in the winters when we all returned home. Art took a backseat as my own baseball career excelled, playing through college and the minor leagues myself in the Arizona Diamondbacks Organization. Careers in sports tend to end abruptly, when it comes you’re set adrift, an identity that’s built on one thing is precarious. I fell back into the only other thing I had felt passion for, art. Originally believing I’d end up down the road at Nike, meshing art and athletics, I enrolled in the design program at Portland State University. Quickly realizing I had an innate talent, I dove in fully, falling in love with design. Two years into the program I needed more, I started freelancing on the side to fill the gaps between class projects. Soon I felt I was learning more from the real work than I was school. I took a leap and didn’t sign up for the next term, instead moving to the Bay Area. Believing if I fell on my face I could always limp back and return to school. I left in 2019, and don’t believe I’ll ever be finishing that degree.