We recently connected with Jim Pape and have shared our conversation below.
Jim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I think the biggest risk I have ever taken is actually pursuing my art career. In 2002 I turned 40 and I had met up with Frank & Lynn Stone who owned an art gallery(Frank Stone Art Gallery) in Minneapolis, MN. I had presented my art to them and they suggested a professional art show at their gallery. Lynn Stone was a retired judge from Minneapolis and new many art collectors from the area. They would have professional shows featuring up and coming artists and then have an opening night with food and drink for these art collectors. I was excited but yet extremely anxious about what I was getting into. I didn’t feel my art ranked high enough to be in an art show. I did not go to art school and had no professional experience with meeting people in the art world. The show was on my birthday when I turned 40, plus my parents were going to be there. The week before the show I caught a cold and unfortunately, the night of the show I had lost my voice. So the high anxiety continued.
The show was the best thing that ever happened. I met some very influential people who loved my art and gave me the confidence I need to pursue what I loved the most. I actually sold quite a few pieces and even some rather expensive pieces.
Jim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up in Clinton, Iowa along the Mississippi River. The area has beautiful limestone cliffs with the view of the view of the river. My mother told me when I was 9 years old I started collecting fossils at my grandfathers farm when I would go on hikes along the natural spring coming out of the hills. I found some exceptional fossils that I still have today. My dad was approaching his mid 50’s and was getting out of hunting with my brother and they wanted to have an activity that I would be interested in. My dad had a friend that was an agate collector, so we hooked up with them and would go Lake Superior Agate collecting along the river and in gravel pits. My dad then bought me a little rock tumbler which started my fascination with tumbling and polishing rocks. Later as I got older he bought me a rock grinder and several rock saws of different sizes.
I began this rock collecting hobby by making simple jewelry items and even getting into silver smithing. Unfortunately, none of this excited me except the collecting, purchasing, cutting and tumbling of different kinds of agates.
The friend of my dad that introduced us to rock hunting owned a tavern in Clinton. He had lights above his booth’s where he made a three sided panel of sliced polished Montana Agates. He used the same principles of putting these together as of putting together stain glass. That creative light panel sparked my artistic side, so my dad and I decided to take some of my sliced polished agates and make candle holders. Those first one’s weren’t the greatest but you have to begin somewhere. Unfortunately, my dad was very lineal and precise kind of like the agate panels in the tavern. That style was not for me!
I grew up, went to college and got a degree on Construction Management. I moved to Minneapolis, MN where I started my career in Construction. The best part of my career was I got to look for Lake Superior Agates around the building and landscaping of the homes we built. I kept up my hobby and then started to make agate panels from all the discarded wood cabinet doors that were thrown away from the homes we built. They basically looked like stained glass panels that were hung in windows but they were made out of sliced agates. I continued buying rocks from dealers and also buying from estate sales. This is where I got rocks from all over the world at affordable prices.
In the early 1990’s I started taking stained glass classes where I learned the basics of creating stained glass art pieces and then advanced lamp making classes. I had dabbled with making lamp shades before but never doing it correctly. I wanted my art pieces to last so the stained glass classes helped me create art that would last. I also found thru a bad mistake that some stones are color dyed. Stones that are dyed actually fade from the UV sunlight. So I decided to only make my art pieces out of true natural agate and jaspers.
I belonged to a rock and gem club that did small gem shows in enclosed shopping malls around Minneapolis. This is where I started selling candle holders and small lamps. The club I belonged to had a professional photographer and he began to take pictures of my art. He was also the one who introduced me to Frank & Lynn Stone with the Frank Stone Art Gallery where I had my art shows.
I feel my niche as an artist is that I am not lineal like my dad. The art I create is nothing new. I have checked the internet for people who make agate lamps and window hangings. They are very lineal and use many of the same agates throughout with the same color, but I feel my art is unique. When I begin making a piece I want to go beyond the normal. Why can’t fossils, shells, quartz crystals or even metal objects be incorporated into art pieces? Well they can be and I do it. I do what I feel the piece is calling me to do.
After living in extreme humidity and cold from the Midwest, my wife an I moved to Arizona. I sold professionally in the Goldenstein Art Gallery in Sedona, Arizona for 8 years and The Adirondack Store in Lake Placid, New York for 2 years before COVID. Since COVID, I began to rethink and change my art. I kind of got worn out making lamps for clients for the 2 galleries so I began making affordable window suncatchers. I don’t conform to a size or shape I just look at the sliced rock and create what I feel the rocks need to be presented as.
This past year I sold in The Store in The Mesa Art Center and have now recently began exclusively selling at Buffalo Collection and Buffalo Boutique stores in Scottsdale, Arizona. I am back to making lamp shades and accent lamps and of course my unique window suncatchers.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I feel my creative journey has begun from the belief in God. Truly I feel God has given me a creative talent that allows people to love my art. As I have said before my art is nothing new, many people make lamps and glass artists are now incorporating natural and dyed agates into their pieces. I feel my mission is to present God’s creation of natural wonders in such a way as to expose people who buy my art appreciate His creation.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
InMinneapolis I did several rock and gem shows in the malls. Many different people from all walks of life come to these shows, most are collectors but there are others who have no knowledge of the hobby. One particular show I started selling some of my created pieces, crude but they were creations. I had a person come by look at my art and as they were walking away the gentleman said to his wife anyone could do that in fact so could he also make what I make. He was right anyone could do what I do, and as I have seen in the internet many people have done similar things. My art is different, I have a 50 plus year collection of rocks and gems that would cost too much money today. I also see beyond the piece and create my art from an inner spirit. I thrive to present the piece in it’s best and most perfect way. I want you to connect to my piece of art like never before. Even if you don’t buy I want you to experience the beauty of God’s creation.
Contact Info:
- Website: jimpapestoneart.com
- Email: info@jimpapestoneart.com
Image Credits
Photography by Larry Kantor photographybylarrykantor.com