James P. Helms
A little about me....
I am passionate about art, graphics and design in all their various forms, and the fact that I can pursue my passion as a career is what gets me out of bed every morning.
From an early age in Texas and later Charlotte, North Carolina, a heavy diet of comics, science fiction along with an intense passion for cars planted a seed that began to fuel an interest in the visual media. Drawing and painting soon became natural outlets for expression and experimentation early on. Later, photography would enter the mix, and evolve into a vocational hobby providing a steady income through college where a double major in Graphic Design and Illustration confirmed my career path in Graphic Design and gave me opportunity to explore the synthesis between those skills as mediums for art.
After finishing my bachelor's degree I decided to continue my education. I began studying game design at CPCC. Their program has given me the opportunity to learn 3d modeling, Animation, and the fundamentals of programming , along with broadening my understanding of what it means to design for interactive content.
Over the years, the more art I digest, the wider my frame of reference naturally expands my foundation of influence for my designs. Drawing from all corners of the world, my current sphere of influence spans from Swiss designers of the 60’s to Japanese illustrators of the 18th century; from American rock art to the distinct styles captured in American comic and pulp art. Those influences coupled with an interest in cars and their intricate yet fluid designs from all regions and time periods to form my stance that art should be, and actually is, accessible to everyone regardless of being schooled in its scholarly meaning.
Art doesn’t have to be incredibly complex and chock full of hidden meaning to be beautiful, and recognized as beautiful. The more I learn, the more aware I become that all beauty in art boils down to fairly simple components. That philosophy means I aim to unearth beauty in its simple form, free of cluttered distractions and produce truly compelling work. When you see my art, my goal is for it to produce an intense reaction in my audience. While that reaction depends on the individual and what they themselves bring to the table, the end I have in mind is for the reaction to be the same visceral reaction one experiences in the deafening roar of a powerful v8 or the allure of a truly beautiful woman.
