By james art 
The long journey continues
Space and place in Jim Murray’s art
by Bondo Wispolski
Among the remarkable artists living locally, the one who stands out, and besides most, is Jim Murray. If he is not always at the forefront, he certainly is in the background, pursuing his projects with sharp focus and concentration. But let’s start at the beginning, because few people I know have been so dedicated to art, his own and others, and he has done this in a very long time.
Peninsula: You were an associate professor of art during the bigger part of the 70s and 80s at the Mount St. College. Mary’s in Los Angeles. But I guess it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Jim Murray: My father was the post -war career officer in the Air Force, so my early pre -school and early years were spent at AF bases in Germany, New York, Northern California and Texas before settling in a double tour at Norton AFB in San Bernardino.
This tour translated me through high school, after which I spent just over a year at the State University of San Francisco before moving to the College Art Center, after which I was in the Middle Wilshire area in LA Hey
I completed my banks and BFA graduation at Art Center, intertwined with a hitchhike through Europe and a two -year tour with the US Peace Corps in Dominica, West Indies.
I was immediately hired by Art Center from Mount St. In the end, I moved to the Campus of Chalon in Brentwood, where I received a mandate as a studio instructor and director of the gallery.
“11:10 8 12 1973” (1974) by Jim Murray. Oil/acrylic on canvas, 72 ”x 108”
Peninsula: Who were the artists who initially inspired you?
Marty: For myself and for many of my peers, the path to become a professional in the arts is as diverse and non -linear as any profession. I know that my first awakening was to enter the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Francisco in 1962 and to get acquainted with the alternative reality of art through New York abstract expressionists. The UNLABLE, ZEFER, Immediateness opened the opportunities they had to play in the coming years.
Although I did not realize it at that time, my decision to transfer to the Art Center turned out to be key to my aesthetic mantra and my ability to navigate my profession. I was fortunate to have developed conceptual and technical skills to move my work continuously.
“Sentinel: Cooks Meadow” (2014) by Jim Murray. Acrylic on a wood panel, 36 ”x 18”
Peninsula: What was the most important thing you learned as an ambitious artist?
Marty: My mentoring under an artist and teacher, Lorser Feittelon, as a student and most as a graduate student, was crucial to my understanding of the profession and his craftsmanship became an incentive to move forward, to trust one’s instincts and skills to progress And to strengthen their work.
Peninsula: The last time we talked for a long time, it was 10 years ago and you were preparing for a show at the Manhattan Beach Art Center, cured by Anne Martin, called “Bill There – Do this – Doing.” I’m sure “doing this” should be updated a little. It seems that you have started your career with more emphasis on figurative art, and more special portraits of people. You have taken city landscape photos, but you were also reset into false nature, Yosemite, for example. And recently, from what you have marked your series of southwest. How would you describe this evolution?
Marty: Trying to summarize this is an experience.
When a person visits my studio, so far I have been working on art since the 70s. The images range from figurative to landscapes to abstraction, from large 8-foot paintings to small intimate drawings, from photorealism to textured landscape abstractions.
Jim Murray in his studio in San Pedro. Photo from Bondo Wyszpolski
I understand the struggle to bring these obvious differences into a single concept or direction, but in fact I have always been focused on the only concept of time and even more space.
Each of these series was constantly involved for ten to fifteen years of one only commitment to my subject.
My early photorealistic paintings were academic, as well as a conceptual attempt to engage the viewer with the figure or figures in space and place.
“Without the title CFP” (1990) by Jim Murray. Paper, 6 ”x 8.5”
The second body of the works, which began on Saturday’s vacation from the college of Mount St. Mary, focused on the spot, the city landscape, also highly photorealistic, but presented in charcoal and pastel on a particularly small scale.
The following, winter series in Yosemite, was again a consistent effort to respond in a specific place and in this case a specific season. Once again it was a place.
My current focus on the Southwest, like the previous winter series Yosemite, began with the same approach, a focus on facial rocks, changed and defined by the forces of history and nature. However, after a few years of traveling through the southwest, I felt that the interpretation of the landscape needed a different answer. These were not only the huge differences between the granite rocks of Yosemite and the various sandstones of the national parks of Zion and Arkus, but it was the diversity and vastness of the southwestern landscape and the continuously present overlay of tribal cultures and history.
“SW W/P study 14” (2024) by Jim Murray. Mixed media on paper, 18 ”x 15”
Peninsula: Since your Southwest series is your most none of your endeavor, tell us about it and what does the II series do from Series II?
Marty: Beyond the change from the early paintings on the southwest rock, the main difference is that of my changing response to the landscape, which involves interpreting the landscape in the form of a conversation about the texture and surfaces, the processes inherent in the history of the rock art to which it is The permissible degree, the recognition of the different tribal use of the design and the creation of brands.
For the past few months, I have been working in a series that has been trying to move the images from the frame or structured format and bring it more in real space. The new pieces are currently working on paper, which has the extra visual benefit of comparing highly textured surfaces with more fragile paper. The main working concept and animation of these early pieces seem to dictate more research.
“SW W/P study 15” (2024) by Jim Murray. Mixed media on paper, 20 ”x 120”
Peninsula: You lead groups of people in galleries and museums all over LA and Orange County regularly to explore new art. How long have you been doing this and how can people learn more about these excursions and how to join them?
Marty: Around 2000, while teaching a number of classes at the Palos Verdez Art Center, I offered a class outside the site that became an “art in the arts”. Manhattan Beach took the programming when PVAC released class just before Covid began. After Covid, we made the class independent and now we call it a group for a museum and a gallery. From the beginning we meet every Thursday from 10 to 15 hours, almost a year around.
The bigger part of our participants are from the South Bay and range from artists and photographers to those who have a strong interest in visual arts and/or are prompted by the fact that LA and South California have become one of the main players in the international art conversation.
Peninsula: In your opinion, how did the art scene develop in the last decade or two? Are there galleries or other places you would like to point to as your favorite? Are there any more artists that you would like to separate as promising or who should be more known?
Marty: As noted, Los Angeles and the Southern California area have become one of the main art centers internationally through the remarkable influx of artists, galleries, art fairs and collectors, especially over the last two decades.
I am active in the art scene in LA since the beginning of the 70s as an artist, teacher and director of the gallery at Mount St. St. Merris. I, along with my peers, saw and experience the changes, from the time when La’s galleries and museums could count from one hand, as far as you can be with the visit group every week, I can’t keep up with the amount of new exhibitions, which are held monthly.
Although our focus to visit is mostly north of the South Gulf, there are exhibitions and quality programming in our local neighborhoods. Strong Professional Contemporary Exhibitions and Relevant Programing Are Consistently Offered Through The Angels Gate Cultural Center, The Torrance Art Museum, The Palos Verdes Art Center, The Los Angel Ach Art Center as Well as a Number of Galleries and places in the center of the arts in San Pedro.
Jim Murray in his studio in San Pedro. Photo from Bondo Wyszpolski
Peninsula: In addition to your studio and your website, where can people watch your art? In the meantime, what are your non -consistent interests while your artistic studies continue?
Marty: In the early 70s, I entered my studio and I never left. My galleries over the years have been key in their support, maintaining my work there through exhibitions and relationships.
But, after Covid and after a few residential downturns, I was able to expand this commitment to the studio with accelerated focus on the new work, which is currently my constant interest in the Southwest. This was what I said, I decided to exceptionally present my work through my studio and website.
My studio at Laha (Los Angeles Harbour Arts) is 401 southern meat in San Pedro. I can contact your phone or text on 310 683 3115 or through my JWMURRAYTS.com website Pen