Jim Wise grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, attended the North Carolina Governor’s School in art and graduated from the Design College at North Carolina State University.
Jim has had a long and successful career as a graphic designer, doing award-winning work for major corporations and institutions throughout the country.
A life-long artist, Jim has finally – and happily – turned to painting full-time in his studio in Atlanta’s historic Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. Jim has studied painting with Atlanta teachers Guy Robinson, Charles Walls and Nancy Honea and Philadelphia painters Stephen Early and Darron Kingsley at Studio Incamminati.
Jim and his wife Hollis divide their time between homes in Atlanta and Asheville.
Jim is proud to be a docent at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
Statement
I create unique paintings that draw on my lifelong practice as a graphic designer. My themes are beauty and impermanence. I feel the relentless passage of time. I strive to present images in unexpected and striking ways, hoping to spark an experience that is at once familiar and mysterious. I paint in a classical, representational style but with nods toward contemporary minimalist and formalist design.
I believe that I create artwork with integrity – integrity in the concepts, integrity in the process, and integrity in relationship to the observer.