James Kelsey was born in 1964 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1977 his
family relocated to Tehran, Iran after his father got a job with Bell
Helicopter. It was in Tehran that Kelsey
was first introduced to abstract art. In
1979 his family was forced to move back to the US because of the Iranian
Revolution. In Jr. High School, Kelsey
began experimenting with different art forms including ceramics, photography
, and eventually metal casting.
Upon his completion of High School, he became a firefighter with the
United States Air Force and was stationed in Italy. It was in Italy that the artist first
realized that a living could be made as a professional artist. In 1987 James Kelsey moved back Washington
after being honorably discharged from the United States Air Force.
The artist began taking classes
at Olympic College for welding in order to finally realize his dream of making
a living from his sculptures. Though he
has taken welding and fabrication classes, he considers himself “self-taught”
as he has developed his artistic style on his own. Of his process, he states, “As a
self-taught artist, I feel free to explore my imagination no matter where it
may lead. I like creating in the abstract because it requires the viewer to
bring something personal to the work of art.
They need to call upon their own history, their thoughts, and what they
already know to bring their own meaning to any particular sculpture.”
James Kelsey currently lives in
Port Orchard, Washington where he built his own studio.
