Alexandra James is from Carpinteria, California and grew up on a farm in Summerland, CA. She graduated from Carpinteria Senior High in 2016 and attended Santa Barbara City College for three years, obtaining an Associates Degree in Fine Art in 2019. She also studied fine art and art history abroad in Germany and Prague in 2019. Alexandra James graduated from UCLA in June 2021 with a Bachelor's of Fine Art and minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education(VAPAE). She is a sculpture-based artist and works in clay, metal, wood and foraged natural materials. Mental health, social issues, the climate crisis, and nature are common themes in her work. She explores these themes through critical phases of research. Her process involves spending time connecting to a natural place, such as scrambling on rocks in Joshua tree and feeling textures, then cataloging the visceral exchanges she has with the Earth, like feeling parched or maybe being stabbed by a cactus. Imagining and visualizing prehistoric and post apocalyptic scenarios helps her navigate the present time and grounds her through sculpting emotive objects and visual components of these scenarios. She gathers her materials and intuitively connects parts by gluing, welding, or joining in a way. Projects sometimes grow into the digital realm when physical space runs out, resulting in kitsch animations. She is always left with questions about the natural and unnatural processes she observes and through her work she tries to satisfy her curiosity and inquiry whether emphasizing learned facts or by imagining satisfactory concepts. By exploring the balance between science, emotion, intuitive line making, automatic writing, and other processes, she is able to make art of varying forms that calms her inquisitive mind and demonstrates her perception of life on Earth.

All original art

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