James    A. Smith

James A. Smith



About The Artist


I started doing metal sculpture at a young age. My dad taught welding at Fresno City College and taught me to weld when I was eight. I started doing sculpture for Christmas presents when I was 15. People told me I should sell my work. So, off and on I did for 51 years. I do 2 types of sculpture, fabricated and bronze casings from a carved wax original. The fabricated work is done by hand and welded with a oxi-acetylene jeweler's torch. I use scrap metal, when I can. In recent years, It has gotten harder and harder to buy scrap, so I'm forced into buying new material, razing the price of the sculpture. The wax carvings are done using a combination of waxes including wax for jewelry. For over 40 years, I have built roads for a living, so the sculpture had to take a backseat. One must usually take a straight job to support one's passion. Now that I am retired, I'm trying to get back into the art world at age 66. Back in the eighties, I placed sculpture in galleries along the California coast, from Morro Bay to Carmel, Monterey and as far north as San Francisco and Sausalito. Now, the internet has opened up the entire world. I have a degree in Industrial Arts from Fresno State, where I learned the ancient art of lost wax casting and how to create from a wax form.