- [Announcer 1] Funding for this program was provided by - [Announcer 2] Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

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- This week on the A-List we'll learn where this Chattanooga based artist finds his inspiration.

- The idea is that God gave us a gift and I hope he's happy.

I dedicate some of the work to God but what I've found with between granddad and God, both right here with me, is that while I'm working if I need something, it's here I know that's God, he said here, granddad said give you this to work with.

So that's pretty much my approach.

- Join me as I talk with Jim Collins, coming up next on the A-List.

(upbeat music) If you live in Chattanooga, chances are you've seen the familiar silhouette of the Watcher, perhaps at the Hunter Museum or the Edwin Hotel or at Sculpture Fields at Monague Park.

Jim Collins is the artist behind these distinctive figures but though he may be best known for his Watcher series, his portfolio demonstrates an impressive array of expression, including drawing, painting, assemblage and collage.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Jim and learn all about how his career has taken can shape over the decades.

Well, Jim, welcome to the A-List.

- Thank you, Alison.

Good to meet you - And thank you for welcoming us to your home, your studio, your collection.

I'm admittedly a little distracted by the treasure trove behind us and I know we'll get to that but I'd love to get to know your story.

I know you did not grow up in Chattanooga so tell me about your childhood.

- I'll give you a quick quickie.

I was born in Huntington, West Virginia and you might remember a few years ago, it was the most unhealthy city in the United States of America.

So I didn't stay there.

- You predicted that.

- Actually born there, went to Marshall University and worked for a while in public health and became very interested in public health at that time and got a scholarship from the state to go to the University of Michigan and studied public health education for a master's level.

And I found out that people weren't really interested until they're sick in public health.

So I became frustrated went back then to my love, which is art and with my degree, I could go any place pretty much in the world at that time and get a job.

And so I elected to go to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, a very small town but they had a great master's program in art and in sculpture, in particular.

So I went up there, got a job and worked, took three years to get through because I worked full time and after three years there, I decided I wanted to leave public health, a little frustrating.

I still nurse at me occasionally but because my interest in people.

So I applied for positions and actually came to the university, it was University of Chattanooga then and later UTC and they offered me the position.

I came here and I taught at the university for 17 years.

- What did you teach?

- Sculpture, drawing, art history, that kind of thing.

And I loved that, it was good with the students and I worked, I was still producing the art quite a bit and I became frustrated with the administration of the university and they weren't supportive of old faculty and so I thought, Jim, what do you really wanna do?

And I thought, I wanna be an artist.

So in the interim, I'd bought a bank building on the Ohio River, in a town called Ripley, Ohio.

I just happened to be going through and saw this old building.

It was built in 1860, beauty, just beautiful, boarded up.

So I had that building worked on it several years and then Debbie and I just decide we would go there romantically.

We're going to live there and make art in our bank and restore it.

That was very romantic but not very practical.

- Now, when were the seeds for your artistic abilities first planted when you look back, was it at a young age or was that something that blossomed over time?

- Well, came on my mother's side.

Her mother and a sister were both artists and her brother was an artist but they were folk artists, they're Kentuckys.

In other words, looking back on it they weren't sophisticated portrait artists or do grand murals or anything but I think, uncle Alvin did a waterfall in the back of a baptist church baptismal, so I guess he was a mural artist.

And my grandfather, very influential, I think some of the sculpture it probably comes more from him.

He was a retired mechanic from the Railroad Industry but he a beautiful workshop and he was always working at things and he was a very practical man.

He would use, let's say take a refrigerator that no longer works well, now we just tossed into the junk pile and it's melted down.

He used everything, he cut it up, he made different sheets of metal, became his sheets of metal.

He used everything but the plastic, some of the plastic liner and I said, grandad what are you gonna do with the plastic liner?

He said, I'm working on it.

He hadn't figured out what to do with that plastic.

So he influenced me a great deal and I think I'm blessed but the idea is that God gave us a gift and I hope he's happy.

I dedicate some of the work to God.

But what I find with between granddad and God, both right here with me, is that I might be working, I try to recycle everything, I'm sure that comes from him, when I throw it away it's done.

And I find that while I'm working if I need something, it's here, oh, I know that's God, he said here, granddad said give you this to work with.

That's pretty much my approach.

- That early influence from his grandfather clearly shaped how Jim approaches his own creativity.

Whether he's working with metal, paint or found objects, he transforms discarded items into unique works of art.

But before he began gaining recognition for his artistic pursuits, he had to make the leap from the world of academia.

What was the turning point from you going from academia to saying I'm gonna become an artist full time.

I can make a living off of this.

- I didn't know I could to do that.

- That's a pretty bold move, I would say.

- Yeah, it's pretty rare too.

Not to pat myself on the back, I'm blessed because of it but it's difficult to do that.

- So how scary was it when you first decided to take that step?

- Well, I was young, wasn't scary at all.

I was working in Ripley in the bank and all those degrees went back, I had to make a living.

The community's only 2,800 people and they were very supportive of Debbie and I and our art and we opened up a little gallery and that sort of thing but I painted houses, I did whatever to make a living.

So Debbie said that she just couldn't stand it anymore, she said, let's go home, that's back to Chattanooga.

So we came back and I had some excellent, beautiful support here.

Bill and Ruth Humberg, Ruth bless her heart, she did so much for me to help me and with her children, even her mother bought a piece and gave it to Hannah.

So with that kind of support and then I'd started thinking, look, actually I think a lot of it has to do with the internet is when the public art thing really opened up.

- A lot of people know you for the Watcher Series, before we talk about the Watcher though, I wanna talk about the Driver, which ironically, as I understand, might have been the driving force behind the Watcher.

- It is.

- So tell me about that pen drawing that you made and how that came about.

- The first Watcher I did as a proposal for Miller Park, it was not used and it was not used because the mayor at the time said that the park was art in itself, well, that's cool and he was afraid that the Watcher would attract the wrong kinds of people.

So, every place you go that there's art there are dealix hanging out, I had to do it, so as a result of that drawing, which I did at the university during a boring meeting.

- On the back of your meeting notes or meeting minutes you just started drawing a silhouette.

- Well the design of the bench, there were benches down there in the beginning, so I had that design, I was thinking, this would be cool to do a guy sitting there and I never have done this piece, I should do it probably but the first Watcher was intended to be polished stainless steel, both sides so that it became a mirror and then what happened?

It'd disappear.

You see, because it would reflect everything around it and then if you sat down beside, like we're doing, sit there with the Watcher and I have international photos of my Watchers with people talking to 'em and they're sitting there.

So my concept was, if you sat down next to a mirror, what happens?

It's animated by you, as if you're talking like this to the Watcher, because it's a good listener and I thought, ooh, that'd be such a good piece, well, it was, not didn't happen.

Well, I thought I that's a good design, I'll just go ahead and I did two of 'em in steel, half inch steel and Ruth Hamburg was a big Watcher supporter and she bought the first one.

- How many Watchers are there now across the world?

- Well, in this room there's probably eight or 10 available, available, a hundred.

- And each one has an independent personality, character, build?

- They look, as you can see, if you go around just look at 'em they're all over town, including, Bob Corker's old building, he did downtown, it had a Watcher, it's a variation, yes.

- Is it the same silhouette?

Is the man the same silhouette?

- No, there, yes, in a way but the nose might be changed, the mouth might be changed, there might be a little bods back here where his shirt's not tucked in.

- But is his face someone?

Did someone inspire you for that original silhouette?

- Yeah, that mayor.

(upbeat music) - Since creating that first design in 1978, the Watcher has become a familiar figure around Chattanooga, across the United States and even overseas in Ireland but the Watcher series is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jim's diverse portfolio.

You're clearly more than just the Watcher, that's what I think has become so iconic, especially in the Chattanooga area but as you can, anyone seeing the farm animals, the horse and the cows and you have the deer installations and the dogs, so you certainly have been a broad variety of your work, plus not just metal work, not just public art, when did you make that transition?

When did you start incorporating other life forms and other mediums to your repertoire?

Or is that all around?

- I can't point any particular place.

I decided though probably 20 years ago.

Yeah, I've been doing it, this is funny, I have people that help me, I rent art, major pieces like this, to communities and I have pieces now in Salisbury, North Carolina and down in Gadston Alabama, all over rented, they rent 'em for a year or two and it's another way of financing my hobby, now it's my business.

But I'm not doing any more large pieces on speculation, I'm getting too old to go through that.

- How long does it take you?

How long does one piece take you?

- Oh, I love this question.

Oh, you said one piece?

The question I love though is how long did it take you to make that?

I said 87 years but you said one piece.

Let's say if get a commission, I'm pretty much only making bigger things by commission.

I've turned into a painter too or back to painting, probably six weeks as fast as I could do it.

- My husband wanted to know because I think he wants to commission of silhouette of me but he wants you to name it the talker, so I don't think a Watcher would, (Alison and Jim laughing) I'm only kidding.

Well, I think the folk art influence is obvious when you look at your pieces, what I'm curious about is the influence of ancient Egypt and mythology and your pieces that have a Sphinx or pyramids, how did that become a fascination and inspiration for you?

- I've always been fascinated by mythology and I've gone to a Greek period, the Furies and p-lops and all these kinds of things as subject but what I do is and you're right about the folk art, that comes from grandma and grandpa.

My grandfather used all these stuff, I use everything.

So some of these pieces that I make are storytelling but it's not essential that you get the story.

In other words, I try to make them universal, human kind of connection, to a mythological God or something and I update it but I might not update it to now, I might update it to 1910 or 1919.

One of my favorite moneys that I use, bills that I use, came from German marks from the hyperinflation of 1919 and there's a 50 mark bill that's beautiful, just beautiful, I love that thing and so I search eBay, in places like that, to get these things.

Then I always buy everything like that, I buy stacks of stuff, I have stacks of stuff so that I say, oh, I need whatever, well, here it is right here or I might say, ooh, that I want incorporate that in this.

So the trigger, I call it a trigger, say the Egyptian thing but I there's not too much Egyptian, I use pyramids as bases but on top of the bases, there's a couple here there's a little doll, this big, might be in.

I've done 'em in bronze and one it's in sterling silver solids or certainly silver and they're on pyramid basis, although they're Greek inspired and what this doll is, it's called Medusa doll.

So it's a little doll that a child would play with, got snakes and people say, ooh, how gross?

I said, no, that's the way it would be.

It would be the Barbie doll of 3000 BC.

(upbeat music) - Whether he's drawing from the folk art influences of his grandparents or the rich stories from ancient mythologies, it's clear that Jim finds inspiration all around him.

And one look around his studio will illustrate the many ways in which his ideas become reality.

So we've talked a lot about your sculptures but we really didn't get a chance to give your paintings their do glory and this, I mean, this is just one of, I think, so many that you have done.

I mean, do you just never run out of ideas?

- I'm getting close.

(Alison and Jim laughing) This is kind of the mix of painting and assemblies, sculpture because the frames are just as important as the message.

- And this is back to the found objects and your granddad's influence of how do you recycle, repurpose, reuse, because there's a lot of influences here, it looks like.

- There is, my own discovery.

Here's something that is iconic about my work is that if you'll see my work, it's always got diagonals and somebody said, why do you use those diagonals?

I said, it creates motion, it's impending, something's happening because the most stable line in art is the horizon line.

It relates to the earth, not gonna move, hopefully and the other thing is poles, like power poles and those sorts of things, trees, they're all strong verticals and they're pretty sound.

But if you see a tree doing this you aren't gonna go under that tree or anything else, so it's that impending.

And that's what subtly put into my work and when I see a diagonal I just love to go around road signs.

So that's assembly.

Then there's painting on canvas and that sort of thing and what you asked was about subject matter for painting and my story is this, if you go back three, 30, 50,000 years ago, the cave man's in the cave, he's looking outside, he sees lightning and he's going out today because it's raining.

So he picks up a piece of charcoal on the fire and starts drawing, looking outside he sees bison going by and he starts looking out and drawing just like an artist.

So everything after that is copy.

Once you do the two dimensional, there's a painting, no subtleties or technique.

I'm afraid that technique probably drove me further away from painting than anything, because a lot of things just became a show of technique but there's no story, there's nothing in there.

- So how do you figure out your next piece?

Is it something that you look for in terms of inspiration or medium or is it much like the items that you use, does it find you?

- Well, I think, I get an idea or concept then I just have fun, that's really it.

It's very close to a scientific investigation, because I don't know what's gonna happen.

Like when they're mix two chemicals together, you don't know what's gonna but let's see what happens and I do that with my art and I have new tools, these oil markers are great, they're very vivid, they're very permanent.

Permanence is a big part of what I do.

I don't wanna sell something or give something to somebody and have it breakdown in three weeks or something.

- So with that said, what do you hope your legacy is?

- I don't know.

I think it's already said.

I don't know if it's good or bad.

I think that probably what I will be known for and it'll carry through will be the Watcher and that just came about but that's been going on for what?

40 years, longer than 40 years.

So I don't know.

- But after all these years you're still having fun?

- Oh, I love it, I love it.

And I do it for me.

Now I will do commissions but then I will also turn down commissions.

If somebody says, I wanna do this and I think that's just gotta be a lot of work and it's not going inspire me, no.

I think you should go to Mary Elizabeth smuck, down the street, she does stuff like that.

- Well, Jim, just like your artwork, you are a one of a kind.

- Well, thank you, so are you.

- Thank you for having us today.

- I enjoyed it.

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- [Announcer 1] Funding for this program was provided by.

- [Announcer 2] Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer 1] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you.

Thank you.