S.K. James

S.K. James is the founder of Digital Mixed Media Studios and Gallery in Reno, Nevada, and he helped to originate the term "digital mixed media" − a combination of digital media with any other media, electronic or organic, in any form.

James first became passionate about producing visual art in 2003 when he created and published his first book of poetry, entitled Ride, and utilized iStockphoto and other stock image sites to license images from a variety of well-known visual artists and designers (David Byrne, Chas Ray Krider and David Carson) to use alongside his poetry. At the time, James also began corresponding with Bruce Livingstone, the founder, President and CEO of iStock and James even used Livingstone’s own imagery in his book. Livingstone, who later sold iStockphoto to Getty Images, referred to Ride as a beautiful early example of how digital images from artists throughout the world could be used in collaborative media.

James fell in love with the idea of producing his own imagery and has devoted his time since then to studying photography and the quickly evolving tools of digital post production. He now works in the extensive palette of Adobe Master Collection CS5 as well as Painter 11 and many other programs.

James' own visual work is generally based in digital photorealistic montage, often utilizing layered elements of original photographs combined with paint and other materials. James also works in 3-D as well as video editing and production. He maintains a studio in Reno, Nevada and creates archival quality images on canvas and a variety of art papers on an Epson large format giclee-quality printer.

James was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied as a fellowship student of Mandarin Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan before he received his B.A. in philosophy. He then studied international law in London at the University of Notre Dame's London campus before he received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He also studied as an M.F.A. student of creative writing at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana (until winter came). He received his mediation certification from Harvard Law School in 2000. James has lived in Northern Nevada in the Reno-Tahoe area for more than 20 years and he is an avid snowboarder and hiker.

James’ work has been seen in virtual and actual galleries in the U.S. and abroad. He was one of the original occupants of the groundbreaking Dada Motel exhibit centered at the historic El Cortez Hotel in downtown Reno, Nevada and he has exhibited in every exhibit since the beginning of NadaDada including in the two Nada Dada museum shows. James has exhibited numerous times in both juried and non-juried exhibits at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art and he was recently featured with other Nevada artists in a documentary about Reno’s NadaDada artists that premiered at the Nevada Museum of Art.