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Back Current Show
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Childhood years provided James Shipman with a visual education never to be reproduced again.Today, the smoke billowing towers have ceased to breathe. A few remain, stretching into the sky like an ancient wonder, but the most have been torn down. As a child, Shipman dug clay from the land surrounding his home and used it to create objects. This is where he developed his passion for sculpture. Shipman followed his dream and in 1984 earned an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University.
The spiritual energy in this work flows from the philosophy of the artist. "I've been an artist-athlete most of my life - a wrestler, and an artist who wrestles with the clay and steel. An athlete trains by doing physical and meditative exercises in order to compete without preconceived thought. The same approach is true in my artwork. The work process enables my sculpture to come from a spiritual source." Shipman's work can be seen in contemporary art galleries in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York.
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Hugh
clouds billow from massive towers; Blue shirted workers scramble around
massive pots of molten metal; Splatters of red steel explode and occasionally
singe the steel workers. This is the Pittsburgh of the Industrial Revolution;
The Pittsburgh of a young and inquisitive James Shipman. 
Shipman
captures the essence of this time gone by in his artwork. The feel and
texture of his work resembles an ancient artifact uncovered by archaeologists.
A good example is in one of his works called TIME TELLS. The large artwork
consists of half-moon shaped slices of ceramic resembling half-moon slices
of an old tree being held on edge by a circular steel band running tangent
through the centers. The piece looks like something that would have been
used during a ritualistic ceremony in ancient times - a spiritual gathering.