Smoke Signals 7
FEBRUARY 15, 2005
Jim Jackson has been at it since before high school and has always known that faces are his strength.
By Ron Karten
DO
igh above the Columbia
River Gorge and back a few
miles in the woods of Corbett,
Klamath-Modoc sculptor Jim Jackson
lives and works with his wife, Teresa,
who handles the marketing, including
the website and the books, and artist
daughter, Jayde, who is now eight and
already has been creating art for years.
Jackson is a soft spoken, self-assured
man who learned early to stand
tall in the Indian-unfriendly environs
of Klamath Falls.
While growing up there, Jackson's
dad told him to stand up for himself.
"I always stood my ground," he said,
"and it never really affected me that
bad."
Ultimately, though, his dad's advice
was "to get out of Klamath Falls."
Like Tribes everywhere, the Kla
math Modocs had been abused and
decimated. He was born into a Tribe
that had been dissolved by the federal
government, torn apart by bureau
cratic rules designed to do just that,
and finally in 1986 restored as a feder
ally recognized Tribe.
It is out of that cauldron that Jack
son emerged, and took on a lifelong
pursuit of working at art, but also
teaching. He teaches about art in ways
that also teach about life and about
his history and culture.
"What I do as an artist," he said,
"I'm teaching about where I come
from."
Today, for example, chief among his
projects is teaching art to his daugh
ter, Jayde, and her cousins.
"It's interesting to see some of the
kids get interested in art because
they're so teachable," he said.
"I let them play with the clay," he
said. "I encourage them to go in their
own direction. I give them techniques
for making the eyes, the nose, the
mouth. I do cartoonish faces and the
kids go crazy for it. They get really
involved. Each does his own little char
acter." Before striking out from Klamath
Falls, he enjoyed his first artistic suc
cess in a showing of his work at the
803 Gallery. Family support and the
success of that first showing led Jack
son to continue developing his skills. .
His father was "one of my biggest
influences. He pushed me into paint
ing and sculptures. He was a perfectionist."
Early on, Jackson made clay people
to use as targets for his bb gun. "You
couldn't tell if the plastic bullets hit
so I made clay people as targets
so you could tell," he said.
He made clay pots in high
school, but didn't have much
interest in the pots. Pretty
quickly, he started making
faces on the pots, and from
there just faces, and he has
been on that track ever
since.
"The whole idea is the
face," he said recently of his
work. "I always wanted to
get better at the face."
"That's what actually at
tracted me to his work way
back when," said Steve Fabiani, owner
of the Southwest Trading Company, a
Geneva, Illinois-based art dealer who
has been handling Jackson's work
since the 1980s, "his faces. I think his
art is so full. It brings the spirit of his
people out. His faces show some of the
best emotion and character that I've
seen in art in his medium."
He now competes at the top Indian
showcases in the nation, including the
Heard Museum in Phoenix and the
Santa Fe Indian Market. Recently, his
work was part of the Nez Perce Art in
the Wallowas show and at the Ziibiwing
Center of Anishinabe Culture in Mt.
Pleasant, Michigan.
Also last year, he taught a week long
clay residency at the Evergreen State
College Longhouse Education and Cul
tural Center in Olympia, Washington,
where he worked alongside digital art
ist Larry McNeil (Tlingit) and ceramic
and bronze artist Lillian Pitt (Warm
SpringsW asco).
A Ford Foundation grant to Evergreen
State College funded this project and many
others for the college, said Jackson, who
used some ofhis time to "teach kids about
(the business side of) our trade." He has
learned that "a lot of artists aren't
business sawy," he said, so he helps
them learn to market themselves
and do shows.
You can listen to
Lillian Pitt de
scribe how his
students suc
ceed under his teach
ing, or you can look at
daughter Jayde's fin
ished pieces to know
that her dad has
been successful,
but you don't even
have to look at
Jayde's work to
realize how far
she has come.
Her self-confidence
shows
in the way
she describes
her work
and her in
terests. She
carries the
Family Business Jim Jackson (1 to r), daughter Jayde, and wife Teresa all
help out with the business. Pictured below is a bronze sculpture by Jackson.
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authority of one who has a partner
ship in the home, who does not tippy
toe around though the home or the
shop, though both are filled with price
less originals.
These originals are not yet the prizes
of wealth.
"You know artists can't afford their
own work," said Teresa, "but Jim
trades every place he goes and we have
a little remembrance of each show."
Jayde often accompanies Jackson to
art shows. "She watched me
for years talking to
people," he said.
For years now,
she has
shown her
work along
side the
work of her
dad, and
she is more
than ca
pable of ex
plaining her art
work to po
t e n t i a 1
buyers
"the clay,
the firing
and every
thing else,"
said Jack
son. "He's a
very won
d e r f u 1
said
Pitt. "Very professional. Very kind
and considerate."
The compliments come from many
quarters and have been uniform over
the years.
"We do everything on a handshake,"
said Steve Fabiani. "He's very dedi
cated to his art. He is very, very ser
vice oriented to his collectors. He will
travel the country to bring a piece to
you."
"He's always been very professional,
on time, and always very very gracious
to my customers," added Fabiani. "He's
one of the fairest artists I deal with."
As a result ofhis success, he spends a
lot of time on the road, and even the road
teaches him lessons in one case about
being on time for a show.
He counts his education in market
ing as among the toughest parts of de
veloping his career.
Some 30 well-regarded Indian artists
make up the core of Jackson's artistic
community. He points out who made
each piece, sometimes reaching for a
name or other examples of what they
do. It is a growing community of art
ists that inhabit the Jackson house
all the pieces infused with meaning,
not only from the beauty of the art it
self but also from Jackson's on-going
personal relationships with the artists.
He counts on them for ideas and inspi
ration, for shop talk and friendship.
"Even being around some of the art
ists at shows gives you inspiration," he
said.
"I have a lot of influences," he said.
"What's nice about doing shows, you
see hundreds and hundreds of differ
ent kinds of artwork."
"I see it in my daughter. She wants
to try everything."
Jim's son, Chad, 23, recently returned
from a year in Iraq and is stationed in
Colorado Springs. Nicole, 22, Teresa's
daughter that Jim and Teresa have
raised since she was two, is pursuing
Native American Studies at Haskell
Indian Nations University in Kansas
and, according to her mom, is inter
ested in Native social work.
Jackson's work last appeared in
January at a wine tasting and
art show event called, Sagebrush
Rendezvous. The Rendezvous
was held at the Running Y re
sort in Klamath Falls, and
the event raised money for
cancer, mental health, and
a local grade school. II