About the Artist
just is case you want to know who it is that you might be working with!
It is often difficult for artists to separate their personal and professional lives. Or it has been for me, for at least the last 40 years or so - so I've included a little of both.
The Early Years
1946 - born in Jackson, TN - don’t remember much about that.
1948 - hit by a car when I was 2 1/2 yr.. old while crossing the street on my tricycle (have acted a little crazy ever since!) - ha!, surely don’t remember much about that!
BUT I DO REMEMBER:
1949 - sitting in a stroller, placed inside my grandmother’s front sceen door watching the bulldozers across the street builing the elememtary school I would begin attend in a couple of years (if I could last that it that long) and waiting for the bulldozer drivers to come get me, put me on the dozer and drive around over campus - not so much that they were ultrabenevolent to me, they just enjoyed talking to my aunts who were watching over me. I remember this distinctly.
1950 - fell out of a moving car - THAT really made my mother mad! Also, well into my recovery, one rainy day when I could not go outside (plus I still had a cast on my shoulder), I was riding my tricycle in the house. I wanted to make a right turn, but something happened, (surely it had to be a mechanical failure) I turned left and ran straight into the door, the trike and I both fell over on my broken shoulder, breaking my collar bone again! So, the first time I saw “Laugh In” , where the guy (the guy that only just grunted) on the tricycle falls over (and I think they ran that every episode) I wondered if someone in LA, NYC or someplace had heard about me. I lived two blocks from Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes!) - his sister actually lived next door to us. I climbed most every tree in our neighborhood. When she was younger, my mother climbed the water tower a couple of lots away from our house - I tried, but by that time, the ladder was really rusty! But I did climb most every tree in the neighborhood.
1953 - was “flown” out of the second row of the autitorium when Wink Martindale (he was Winkie back then and he was from my hometown, Jackson, but became a TV personality in Memphis as the host of Mars Patrol). He would come to Jackson as a space trooper to show us a horror/science fiction movies. I mean, yes, he has those bright whites, but he was also strong enough to lift me our of the seat and almost fly me to the front of the auditorium. (well, I was sitting in the second row, still, I was impressed!)
Jimmy grows up…
1957 - kissed by certain girl (that I had a big crush on) just before she became Elvis's girlfriend. (I was 11 at the time - she was about 18 so I sorta felt that romance was going nowhere). She was probably about 5 years behind Wink in age.
1961-62 (?)- became an Eagle scout.
962 - I saved a kid from drowning in the Moose Lodge swimming pool while serving as a YMCA Day Camp counselor (some people say he would never have been in that situation if I had been more attentive as a life guard. But hey! He told me he could swim! And, and I was only getting paid $ 35/wk. anyway! ) - had about 15 other jobs during junior and high school years (delivered the Jackson Sun, worked at a florist (did that from the time I was about 7 - I would take flowers from the delivery truck to the front door and say “Flowers from Vineyards” (they tried making me wear a tie but even at that age, I rebelled) . Now, this was really not child abuse (at least back then), my grandmother, aunt and sometimes my mother worked at Vineyards during the “flower” seasons, so this was really them making sure that I was actually being well babysat (?) by Willie, the truck driver!. I got paid 50 (there is no cents symbol on this keyboard!) / hr and I think I got my social secutiry card when I was, maybe 12? I also worked at several clothing stores, worked at Camp Mack Morris (Boy Scouts) for 6 summers, YMCA counselor, etc.
1959- 1963 -Was on the staff at Camp Mack Morris and served as head of the kitchen my ast coule of years at camp - responsible for feeding 200-250 campers, 3 meals a day for two summers (I did have some help), so that is why I am sorta adequate around our kitchen. side note! We had two ladies that would come in from town each day to actually do the real cooking. One of my jobs was to nventory all the food and supplies we had for our weekly order. I kept noticing that the vanilla and lemon extract bottles (maybe a half-gallon bottles) kept getting more empty at each inventory - turns out that the extracts were about 70-80% alcohol - and I knew for a fact that we had not had one thing from the kitchen that summer that used lemon extract! But, I put 2 and 2 together . . . .
1964 - graduated from Jackson High School (I'm sure you've probably heard of the JHS Golden Bears?) Was the yearbook photographer and was allowed to set up a darkroom at the school - I think I was the only student that had a key to the school. Being a photographer (?) included an actual Press Pass. When LBJ came to Jackson he spoke to the crowd, on the top of a flat bed trailer parked in front on the New Southern Hotel Amazingly, I was allowed to get very close to him. I remember that election because his opponent was Barry Goldwater, one of his bumper slogans was “AUH2O-64” - being a chem student and a photographer, I was extremely impressed of the quality of the “campaign slogan professionals” he had working for him! I mean, to be able to mix politics, chemistry and humor, cool. I say humor because to consider voting for him was a funny notion! That fall, I began my college career at Lambuth College (a small, Methodist, liberal arts college), in Jackson. It later became a branch of Memphis State University which was later changed to University of Memphis - for me, it was sinful when the state changed the name. I think the only reason they did it was so they could sell new T-shirts and sweatshirts.It will always be Memphis State to me.
1964-1968 - Played in a band which partially paid for college. We were not bad and I made good money. Back then we would get maybe $100 each for each time we played- each “gig” woud be about 4 hourse, including some breaks and of course time spent tuning, so maybe we actually played 3 hrs/ night. In retrospect, that probably put us in the top 90% of earners in Madison County at that time. Plus, it was fun, I would surely have done it for free (and some times, we actually did do it for free).
1966 - worked at a creosote plant for 2 days! - it probably later became an EPA Superfund site - I got out of there!
1968 - graduated from Lambuth. I was a Bio/Chem major (for pre-med), most of my classes also had labs, so that meant for each 3 hr class, you spent 6 additional hours in the lab. And, while in college I also worked in the lab of The Jackson-Madison General County Hospital (TN) - played in our band (when it was still rock and roll) - was in a fraternity (KA) - and had several other part-time jobs. Oh, most of the time I also had a girlfriend. I didn't get accepted to medical school (something nonsensical about grades!) But for years, I could guess the diagnosis of most every patient on "E.R." before the doctors did - applied to Air Force to be a pilot (flunked the physical, something about being knocked unconscious when I was a kid - getting hit by a car does that to you). but was later accepted by the Navy but by then they were transitioning to the F-14 which was a highly electronic platform, so I would probably have washed out of that! They did say, if I was willing to go into helicopters, I could leave for boot camp the next day. They did not use the term helicopter though, they said “rotary wing aircraft”. Now I might not have made it into med shcool but I was not dumb - I knew what they meant!.
So, some time during this period, out band was playing in Bolivar, TN (home of West Tennessee State Hospital, I am sure you have heard of it), at an VFW, American Legion, Elks, Moose Lodge - a man comes up on the stage to tell us that a celebrity was in the crowd and he wanted to sing with us (oh my!!). What could we do? It was a big crowd, we were playing for a split of the cover charge, we could not say no. So up comes Ray Stevens “Everyting is Beautiful”, a song we did not know but he said it was in the key of “G”. I am pretty sure we were tuned correctly, and I am sure he was singing in G#!. It was pretty awful - I think the only thing that sounded good was the drums, they were in tune! But it was late in the evening, so the crowd loved it.
BEGINNING OF JIMMY'S FIRST LIFE
1968-69 - taught 9th grade General Science in Cairo, Georgia, home of the Cairo (pronounced KARO) Syrupmakers . . . really! (now I’m sure you’ve heard of them!) In Cairo they make pickles in the summer, peanut butter in the fall. The town really smells good - about half the time. SO, now I am 500 miles away from home and know absolutelly no one in the state - it was a good time for me to transition - from my nickname, which was even used by some of my professiors in college, to my real name. Well for three weeks, people in Cairo called me Jim, then, one of my old girlfriends wrote me a letter but addressed it to the school at which I was teaching. The student assistant put it in my mailbox, but by the end of the day, half of the school, (teachers and students) knew my nickname!
1969 - One of my step-dad’s golfing buddies was on the admissions staff of University of Tennessee Medical School (in Memphis) - my dad’s idea was for us to play golf, let his buddy (I have forgotten his name) win (which he would probably have done anyway!), then invite him to the house for drinks. We did. He came to the house. He and my dad had several drinks then Charles explained to his bud the situation - Dr. (?) said he needed to see my transcripts and amazingly, I had them handy! He looked them over, and in a very friendly way, actually laughed! He suggested that I start graduate school,at Memphis State!, by taking some tough science courses in an attempt to bring up my GPA - then I could reapply - man that turned out to be an utter exercise in futillity - I made great grades but not enough to change hardly anything. in the meantime - worked at the Old Spice plant and at Robert Hall Men’s Store (?).
1969 - taught Biology/Chemistry in Memphis Public Schools - took Navy test to be a pilot - passed it (guess I got healthier !) - put on waiting list to go to Pensacola - guess I'm still on the list !
1970 - married Mary Love Winn after a 3 week courtship (well, we did have one date in college) but we are still together after 54 YEARS??(a French/Humanities teacher now retired and working as a serious birdwatcher), started doing stained glass as a hobby (checked a book out of the Memphis Public Library). A side not - in about 1963, my high school French teacher and I made a deal (I really didn’t know that deals existed then) - she pointed out that I was flunking French i, but if I promised not to sign up for French II, or even French I again, she would give me a “C”. I gratefully agreed. It was, at best, a 1 miute conversation and it is amazing, if she had not offered that, an “F” would probably have kept me out of college, I would have ended up contiuning to be a Rock’nRoller, and now be filthy rich, or gone the other way - regardless, I would probably not be writing this right now! Thanks Ms Cagle!
1969 - 71 - Moved to my wife’s home town to become a chemist at an electroplating plant (Now that's another story!)(the EPA should really have hired me to locate potential Superfund sites)
1971-73 - taught science and math at Ripley (TN) High School, also taught photography and was yearbook advisor (on my staff was Miles O'Keefe who later changed his name and became Miles Keefe who played Tarzan in a movie with Bo Derek) - filled in for various doctors as a part time medical technician
1973-80 - Mary and I were living in TN so we decided to move to FL where I taught science, biology, anatomy & physiology, etc. in various Orange County (FL) schools - still dong stained glass as a hbby but sellling a few pieces to my teacher buddies. Of course, everyone in the family got a piece of stained glass for Christmas.
+/- 1974 - did my first commercial stained glass project - an Earth Shoe store sign (remember them?) - they went out of business a year or so later (but I don't think the stained glass was the reason - man, I really liked those shoes)
1976 - cut off part of my finger in a shopping cart (now called "chopping cart") accident at a Publix Grocery (let's see 1976 minus 1946 made me 30 yrs. old at the time) You should warn your kids that riding on the back of those things can be hazardous! (or they will figure it out on their own) It was a little humbling having to explain to my high school students how the accident happened. The finger could not be reattached so I kept it on my desk, in alcohol in a Pimento jar, until one day, I came back from school after having been sick, to find that someone had opened the jar, left the lid off, let the alcohol evaporate and - well, dust to dust. Interesting/coincidence - the orthopedic surgeon that worked on my hand only a few years older than me, was from Bells, TN (about 20 miles from my hometown, Jackson), and was a UT Med School grad - I had thought about sllipping him my transcript as asking for a little help. PLUS, his last name was my grandfathers last name - maybe he was even a relative. Small world. Ok, so he made it to, and through, med school, BUT I bet he never kissed Elvis’s girlfriend!
BEGINNING OF JIMMY'S SECOND LIFE
1980 - After great deliberation my wife, Mary Love, supported by idea to take a design class with Ludwig Schaffrath, a famous German glass designer. To do this, I had to retire from teaching mid-year. But I/we went ahead and took the jump. After the claee, I began a new life as stained glass artist! (difficult with part of a finger missing!) Retiring in mid-school -year meant that I lost out on 9 1/2 yrs. toward any retirement pay that I might have received.
early 1981 - studied design with Ludwig Schaffrath - a new awakeining. - within a few months we got our first church commission
later 1981 - opened J. PIERCEY STUDIOS and within a few months we got our first church commission.
1982 - studied design again with Ludwig Schaffrath - a reawakening!
1983 - made my first trip to Europe - of course to visit Schaffrath!
1984 - summitted Gannett Peak, highest mountain in Wyoming (13,810’)
1986 - started designing and executing stone mosaics
1986 - hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
1986 - summitted Mt. Popocatepetl (Mexico) (17,883’ but I think it has changed since then due to an eruption)
1987 - summitted Mt. Ranier (14,410’)
1987 - studied with Johannes Schreiter
1988 - served as a Teaching Assistant to Ludwig Schaffrath ( another reawakening) at Pilchuck Glass School, near Seattle.
1989 - became an Orlando Magic Fan
1992 - grew a pony-tail (thought it was cool)
1995 - started studying Italian (informally)
1996 - studied with Italian mosaicist, (in Italy!)
1997 - cut off the pony tail (was no longer cool)
1999 - attended my first professional baseball game (Red Sox vs. Orioles) at Fenway Park - Sox lost.
2001 - became Duncan's father (Duncan was a Spaniel/Lab mix, and my best bud)
2001 - now - Well, it has been a blur. Since the world did not end when we hit 2000, we all are living of borrowed time, right? The studio has been busy. As I mentioned earlier in this site, all of the projects for which we are selected for are honors for us. Even more so when we are selected over studios that are much older and larger. Even though, most of those studios are competitors, most of them are also friends as well - so sometimes winning a competition can be a little bittersweet (but I love it!). Since a couple of years before the pandemic, we started seriously working in fused glass. This has opened a whole new creative world for us. I would like to thank David Judson (competitor/friend), Narcissus Quagliata and Tim Carey for sharing their knowledge with us on fused glass techniques, etc. If it had not been due to the support of my wife, Mary Love, I would never have even gotten started in this work. People like Lenn, Valley, Anita, Bill, and of course Scott have kept me going when I would sometimes get a little frazzled. Antonius helped to give our career a boost by working together on a project in Nassau. Tim is now a “co-conspirator” - his talent and art-business skills have been a great boost. Who knows, what the future holds? I surely don’t, but I think it will be exciting.
I wish I . . . .
had not stopped taking my piano lessons
had made better grades in high school ( I flunked French I. in high school but negoiated a deal with Mdme. - she suggested that I might get a “C” if I promised NOT to sign up for French II the following year!). And then a few years later I ended up marrying a French teacher - irony?) I didn’t even know that you could negotiate grades!
had kept on taking my flying lessons (it got too expensive but I to the point where I could land a plane if I had to)
had made better grades in college
could understand what THE CALCULUS is all about
could understand how space is curved
could understand two books in particular (Foucault's Pendulum and Remembrance of Things Past)
could play 18 holes of golf with only one golf ball which would give me a better chance of breaking 100
I wish I had not . . . . goofed off in school (but it WAS a liberal arts college) during the '60s and actually the busiest time of my life so I placed studying lower on my list of priorities than I should have - but hey, if I had made better grades, made it into med school, you would not be reading this, right? So, maybe not bad decisions after all. (note - Jackson, Tennessee was a little protected - in college, maybe 1965 (?), we actually had to drive to Memphis to see our first real “hippie”!
I wish I didn't . . . bite my fingernails, have to wear reading glasses, watch so much TV.
Physical traits - 6'3", 185 lbs. (used to be at least!), blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, several distinguishing scars and marks (if you read the above history, you will understand why) no tattoos or pierced body parts
Favorite music/musicians - some classical, some rock and roll, some blues, a little jazz, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Alanis Morisset, Andrea Bocelli and some of the old dead Italian tenors (I'm now more open to listening to opera), Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Mark Knoefler, Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton
Things I do like - Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, playing chess, and WorldScape (at this time I have almost 500,000 pts), Seattle, Portland and rainy weather.
Favorite movies - Cinema Paradiso, Il Postino, The Man Who Would Be King, Pink Panther Movies, anything with Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Michael Cain, Susan Sarandon, Annette Bening. Laura Linney, Patricia Clarkson, etc.
Things I would like to do: Produce a series of shows for PBS entitled something like "A Field Trip with Jim". Each week we would visit a studio, factory, etc. We'd show kids how things (from pencils to pipes to Tootsie pops) are made. Field trips were some of the most formative events of my early school years, they made me inquisitive... still am. Now, most everything is made by machines, but then, I want to see how those machines are made.
Closing Thoughts:
From the above you will see that I, as dedicated to my profession as I am, do not take myself too seriously. My life itself has been a mosaic of sorts. I've had many diverse and wonderful educational, professional and personal experiences - really a pretty well-rounded background (thanks Jackson Public Schools) - and I guess the liberal arts college was of value after all (thanks, Lambuth). I'll probably keep doing my stained glass work as long as I can.
Every meeting, every job, really every day is a new adventure and is approached with the same enthusiasm. It's probably trite to say, but it is a pretty uneventful day if I don't learn or do something new. I guess my basic philosophy can be summed up in a quote from one of my best buddies "It ain't worth doing if you can't have fun doing it". Life is just too short.
I am grateful to have a dependable and competent staff. We all spend too much time in the studio creating the things we create, for us not to enjoy doing it. Not that I or my staff are accident prone, but I doubt there's one of our stained glass windows anywhere out there that doesn't have a little of our blood on it. (Hey we're talking drops, not liters, here!). But, we are rewarded every time we finish an installation, and then again, years later when we happen to drive past it and think “Hey, we did that window” - it’s tremendously satisfying. Also, getting new commisions; finishing a design for presentation; making the presentation; both starting, and then finishing a cartoon; opening and unpacking a new crate of glass; completing an installation; being present at a dedication - all of these add up to a pretty cool caree- and to know that years after I am not around, some of out work will still be influending, comforting, and entertaining people. Probably the most strategic decision my wife and I have made is the one to leave teaching inorder to open a stained glass studio. Maybe the world, at least those two worlds (education and art), are hopefully in a better place.
I occasionally visit the site of one of my first large stained glass commissions and still just sit in awe - thinking, "Man, I did that!" That window, as with all of our work, has had an effect on literally thousands of people who have viewed it. In the gallery, you will see a floor mosaic that has had maybe 2-3 million people walk over it since it was installed - every time they look down, my work has a small effect on their lives. If only for a short time their day was made a little more interesting or a little more peaceful. We are fortunate as well as grateful to be able to make a living doing what we do - and yeah, we're still having fun!
Thanks for visiting our site.
Sincerely,
James T. Piercey, Pres.
J. PIERCEY STUDIOS, INC.
Fortunately, I have finally left most of my clumsy years behind, with a few notable exceptions, (except for the 5 stitches I had to get a few years back - it's hard to believe that the bamboo in my back yard is so sharp!)
Hobbies: golf, mountaineering and rock climbing, gardening, cooking, fishing, playing my saxophone and guitar, reading, watching TV. And it is true about two of the happiest days of your life and they both concern boats!
Favorite color: green
Favorite food: too many to list but most often it is usually something I make in my new kitchen (new in 1996!)- of course being from Tennessee, I am especially fond of pimento cheese, real tomatoes, strawberries, and peaches; Brunswick Stew, real barbecue, and real country ham. Interestingly enough (I think), when I was in school, we are served real food by ladies that actually cooked - I would walk to high school every morning smelling the yeasty aroma of the rolls they made every day. I have food standards and, believe it or not, I do not think I have ever tasted a roll better than the ones that came from the Jackson HIgh School cafeteria!
Favorite road food: Waffle House - and I can't drive without a Diet Pepsi in my hand but of late, Cracker Barrel is making a good showing.
Favorite car: My old ' 84 Toyota Landcruiser (268,000 mi.)