By James Love
Bes had seen my career from the start. In fact, I did my first live painting with him at a church in Asheville. Since then, I’ve explored many creative avenues, but it never seemed to stick with my audience.
“You do a lot of different things,” he said.
“And it’s not random to me,” I replied, “but to the people who see my work, it can feel like it comes out of nowhere.”
That confusion matters—because if people don’t understand what I actually do, they don’t know how to work with me, collaborate with me, or recognize the full value of the projects I help bring into the world.
Most people understood me as a traditional artist, and I couldn’t fault them. They had seen me share paintings and drawings online for years, even launching ipaintforgod.com as an online home for my artwork and blog.
But when I developed my business, that wasn’t seen as making art. When I consulted writers and comedians on their creative projects, that wasn’t seen as art. Managing fundraisers or helping shape public art projects was viewed as project management—not creative work. Yet from my perspective, all of it belonged to the same creative lineage.
I needed a way to communicate the full range of my creative output—not just paintings and sculptures.
“You’re right,” Bes said. “You need a way of saying James Love is more than a painter, more than a DJ, more than a writer.”
That’s when it became clear: the idea itself is my primary medium. The tools and formats used to bring that idea to life are secondary.
“A creative producer is someone who creates, develops, and deploys a variety of creative projects,” I told him. “That can include work inside a gallery, outside a gallery, or even helping create the gallery itself.”
“I think that’s spot on,” he said. “It gives you the language to explain that you’re more than a traditional visual artist.”
This doesn’t mean I no longer paint or write poetry. It means I can also produce DJ sets, conversations, fundraisers, and creative systems. The output may change, but the creative intention remains the same.
I am not only an artist in the traditional sense.
I am a creative producer.
If you have a creative project you want to bring to life, click here and let’s get started.
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