James Simon: Bringing his worldly travels back to Pittsburgh with lively artworks:

By Allie Wynands

Point Park News Service

James Simon takes a sip of his sweet orange tea and places his mug back into a cereal bowl functioning as a makeshift coaster.

The native Pittsburgh artist then offers a metaphor for his life by retrieving a primitive sculpture made when he was 15 - "Motorcycle Man," a swirly black and white ceramic man wearing safety goggles, riding a motorcycle decorated with peace signs.

 

Sweet orange tea steeps within a ceramic mug James Simon made, sitting atop his coffee table. Photo by Allie Wynands.

The sculpture, about as large as piggy bank, may have been inspired by the popular movie of that time, Easy Rider, Simon said, but looking at it now - he believes it's a symbol for his passion of traveling and creating art. The motorcycle man is cruising along a hot, Australian asphalt road, ready to take on the world.

It represents Simon's lifelong burning desire to "split" after high school, to go out and experience what the world had to offer him and his artwork.

"It's one of my favorite sculptures ever made," said the 58-year-old artist, who has lived in his cozy Gist Street studio in Uptown for the last 12 years and has built a career on creating small and large-scale sculptures and murals in cities from Pittsburgh to Cleveland.

 

'Motorcycle Man,' James Simon's first sculpture - made at age 15 in ceramics class at Peabody High School. Ceramic. Photo by Allie Wynands.

Simon, grew up in Stanton Heights and developed his knack for art, starting with the creation of "Motorcycle Man" in Mr. Ed Kosewicz's ceramics class at Peabody High School in East Liberty.

"Mr. K," as the students called him, got Simon started and excited about creating in clay.

"He was a great artist who was never embraced by the 60's art scene, his work was full of imagination and humor," Simon said.

One of Kosewicz' welded metal sculptures is a towering, lanky juggler with limbs spread to seemingly right angles, and balls affixed in the air through a thin metal orb.

Mr. K's class was one of the few classes Simon said he remembers enjoying because the teacher taught in a way that allowed the students independence and creative flexibility.

"It was kind of my own natural instincts to create stuff from what was getting me excited about what was going on. When I traveled, everything I saw got me excited about something," Simon said.

Been All Around the World

 

"Traveling was the beginning of a particular education for me," Simon said. "I wasn't 'school-material' and had a strong desire to see what was going on in the world."

"My first big hitchhiking trip was when I was 15, me and my buddy decided we were sick of high school and took off two weeks and hitchhiked to Florida," he recalled.

Once they returned to Pittsburgh, Simon graduated high school because he felt as if he owed it to his parents. But as soon as he had his diploma, he left town again, this time hitchhiking out to Berkley, Calif., with his buddy, Barry.

"His sister was living in a hippie commune of 30 people," Simon said. "We arrived there at midnight, six or seven days later, and Mary Creps (a friend of Barry's sister) answered the door totally naked."

Along with Creps, many experiences with women throughout Simon's life find their way into his artwork - including an Italian woman he fell in love with during his travels in Australia.

Glimpses of these women are reflected in a series of flowerpot sculptures Simon created that range from shapely profiles of faces, draping hair, and necklines. Several flowerpots have round breasts - reminiscent of the oranges the Italian woman and Simon once sold - as the base for the pot where the shoulders should be, with flowers popping out of the lady's head.

After a couple years of hitchhiking the states, Simon left in '74 to live on a Kibbutz in Israel. Simon, who is Jewish but not practicing, only traveled to Israel because he says it was where all the nice Jewish boys and girls went when they left the country. Yet while there, Simon recalled meeting Bedouin Arabs who were "living an ancient lifestyle they seemed like they've been living for years and years."

Many times Simon turns heads and torsos into irregularities similar to an Arab's 'kifiyya' (head cloth) and draping robes.

 

A sculpture within James Simon' studio apartment, made by James Simon. Photo by Allie Wynands.

Simon's work draws people in very abstract ways - they do not feel like a single person of just one culture, lifestyle or nationality. Instead, the people he draws are a mixture of every culture and every walk of life - a mixture of Middle Eastern, European, Spanish, African, Indian, Chinese - making them extremely relatable to the viewer.

From Israel, Simon traveled through Istanbul and across the Middle East to India. He soon ended up in Thailand right after the Vietnam War had ended.

"Bangkok was basically just a big prostitution city for the soldiers," he recounts.

Witnessing such dismal things like the sex trade in Thailand is part of the social injustice and poverty that Simon aims to steer upwards and away from - especially with his large mosaics and welcome signs.

For instance with Simon's "Welcome to Braddock" sign, bright colors from the entire spectrum inspire hope for the future of the town that collapsed with the steel industry and the cocaine epidemic in the '80s.

By working side by side with the Braddock Youth Project (BYP) on art installments, he is sending a positive message to the town's youth and future that art can inspire optimism, hope and change. The youth helped place the piece with tiles and mirrors.

"The youth have thoroughly enjoyed helping bring his creations to life…and find a continued sense of pride in seeing these artworks they helped create as bringing beauty to their neighborhood," said Jessica Schmid, BYP program coordinator.

International Experiences Brought Home

 

While traveling, Simon also spent time in Guatemala and Mexico where he was deeply inspired by the country's sense of humor.

"People laugh a lot in Mexico…they celebrate every time they can," he said.

Simon's compares his artwork to this vibe - as "not serious and heavy," but meant to be celebrated. He finds Mexico to be a surreal, delightful country and a healthy environment to know.

Simon remembers the Day of The Dead, a traditional Mexican holiday where they honor deceased friends and family members with private alters, food and drink.

"The Day of the Dead is a great example of how they appreciate their dead, remember their dead, and have a great sense of humor about it all," he said, adding that the people were very warm, the music half-drunk and "everything seeming as if it's not going to work but it does."

"Sculpture and paintings are a large part of their culture," he added.

 

James Simon works on the "Welcome to Troy Hill Sign" in his studio. Tile and glass mosaic. Photo by Allie Wynands.

Elements like jungle animals and musical instruments within Simon's work are reminiscent of Mexican street murals. For example, his "Welcome to Uptown" sign depicts a life-size tree with animals (rooster, penguin, ladybug, pelican, locust) sitting in the leaves made from mirrors and mosaic tile.

From Mexico, The Aztecs and Mayans' style of drawing also strongly influences his own technique - a mesh of traditionalism and expressionism with lots of loose, curly lines. Simon creates human faces in a similar way to how the Aztecs and Mayans did - long, broad noses and teardrop-shaped eyes, mixed with his own style.

While in England, Simon befriended the "great Hungarian virtuoso violin teacher" Kato Havas, who introduced him to "a world of European history of culture, particularly of gypsies and their magic with music."

Many of Simon's early sculptures include exotic women and men with instruments like guitars and cellos in place of their torso, which are directly inspired by his subjection to the instrument-making world.

Traveling to different countries, Simon got by on little to no money.

"I worked odd jobs like fruit picking, construction, and dishwashing - which for some reason I especially loved," he said. "I tried to pick places it was really cheap to travel…in Afghanistan it was 10 cents for a hotel or a meal."

One may describe this lifestyle as that of a "starving artist," but Simon said he liked it that way. He believes it made his experiences more authentic, and the culture more accessible.

For example, in Manchester, England, Simon apprenticed building violins with violinmaker, David Vernon and in Oxford - Master Luthier Andrew Dipper.

"I fell in love with the musical instrument making world," Simon said.

In Italy, he became friends with Mexican violinmaker, Alvero Escalante, who invited Simon to his hometown of Tepoztlán, Mexico, where he set up a studio and made violins that he later sold in the U.S.

 

James Simon works on the "Welcome to Troy Hill Sign" in his studio. Tile and glass mosaic. Photo by Allie Wynands.

Music In His Mind

 

The majority of Simon's sculptures - regardless of size - have a musical instrument as a focal point and many times it is a violin or cello. Other times it is a trumpet, guitar or accordion.

One tabletop ceramic sculpture is of a European man dressed in a shapely tuxedo with a red and green bow-tie, stretching a violin and bow above his head. Another sculpture, standing about two feet tall, is of a man's head popping out of a French horn and wearing a toupee, with a square for one ear and a circle for the other.

Nancy Chubb, who moved to Pittsburgh from Virginia a few years ago, thinks that Simon's artwork is "bigger than life, and also all about life…

"(T)he liveliness of life and people and coming together…to make music, to meet neighbors, to create celebrations. It is messy, playful, rough around the edges…it has a message and it makes me smile," Chubb said.

Simon believes humor is an important quality in artwork.

"It's often missing in art," he said. "Art can be so serious."

A very well known piece of Simon's artwork in Pittsburgh is The Liberty Ave Musicians (947 Liberty Ave.), a 15-foot tall musician trio with guitar, accordion and trumpet. The sculpture is largely influenced by the multi-cultural music Simon was exposed to while traveling in Brazil, Greece and Mexico.

It is joyful and humorous how the giant musicians loom over an outside seating area of Pittsburgh Press Deli - viewers are forced to tilt their head up to gawk at the men, one wearing a cowboy hat, another sporting a sideways baseball cap and the other a newspaper boy hat. When the viewer's gaze is centered, they notice a sculpture of a dog lounging by the sculpture's feet in the corner.

Art Brightens and Enlightens

 

Uptown Rhythm (located on the Forbes Avenue parking garage wall on Duquesne University) is a 25-foot relief sculpture that colorfully merges music, sports, animals and people from all walks of life against a background of building tops. Another popular work of Simon's is the Fallen Heroes Memorial (located in Bloomfield) that commemorates three slain police officers in 2009 and features a concrete sculpture of Saint Michael standing on a three-tiered mosaic platform. The sculpture of Saint Michael stands angelically above a memorial with photographs of the officers.

 

The "Welcome To Braddock Sign" located on Braddock Ave was created by James Simon in coordination with AmeriCorps Braddock Youth Project. 10′ x 10′. Tile and glass mosaic with cement dog. Photo by Allie Wynands.

Simon is currently finishing work in his studio on a "Welcome to Troy Hill" mosaic sign.

Like his other large-scale mosaics, it is engaging to the eyes - vibrant, popping, and energetic. The scene depicts neighborhood building-tops of all shapes and sizes, and looming above are bright blue pearl flowers to resemble those that grow throughout Troy Hill.

By looking at his artwork it's clear that Simon intends for good feelings like joy and humor to be felt. In his art, people are always portrayed as smiling, and because his drawing technique is rhythmic and free flowing, it is very engaging to behold.

Braddock Mayor Jon Fetterman worked closely with Simon and AmeriCorps on art projects for the city of Braddock - one being the "Welcome to Braddock" sign, a mosaic that stands tall along Braddock Avenue and infuses vibrant, blossoming flowers with musical instruments and glitter amphibians.

"James is a great friend and has made a lot of important contributions to the community…He works beautifully with our young people," said Fetterman. "It's rare when you have an artist that's so approachable, talented and down to earth."

To learn more about James Simon, his past installments and present art projects, visit: http://www.simonsculpture.com/