Jim Felder

As a young child, Jim Felder copied the framed pictures in his family’s Mobile home. He began school in Huntsville after his family relocated for his father’s job in the U.S. space program. One morning, before school, Jim was attempting to draw a realistic outdoor scene and asked his father what he was doing wrong. On his way out the door to work, his dad gave Jim a two-minute introduction to perspective on a sheet of notebook paper that, he said, “turned out to be one of the most important discoveries of my life.”

Jim’s talent as an artist led to a successful career in graphic design. While not the artist’s career he had envisioned for himself, he said the opportunity to sharpen his compositional skills as an art director and illustrator was unparalleled. After retirement, Jim toyed with the idea of returning to art. But it was after recovering from an illness in 2020, that he said, “I threw myself into it.” It has been almost 70 years since his father’s quick perspective sketch turned Jim’s world upside down. Jim said, “For lack of a better explanation, I call it learning to see. I am still learning to see. If I can continue those moments, I will still make art.”