Jim Beckman started with outside-the-box artwork in 2000 after retiring from a construction business. He is a graduate engineer from Yale University and lives in the Park Hill area of Fort Worth.
His art has been displayed in the Fine Arts Museum of Santa Fe. The glass portraits have won First Prize and Best of Show.
Artwork that Jim produces include:
Stainless Steel or Corten Steel Sculptures
Glass Chip Portraits
Postage Stamp Collage Portraits
Erotic Dress Form Lamps
Large Objects - Andy Warhol style
SCULPTURE
The steel sculptures are usually large objects such as the impressionistic horse made from curved Cor-Ten steel plate.
Three sculptures, including the full sized horse “Brio”, are displayed in front of an office building at 3116 West Sixth Street in Fort Worth. “Fas Mich Nicht An,” is a six foot diameter steel spiked sculpture, similar to a sea urchin. At the corner in front of the building is “Cut Nail” a twenty foot nail, a replica of a cut flooring nail, or a horse shoe nail.
“Exuberance II” is a stainless steel arrangement of spikes which will be in the atrium of the new Catholic Charities Building in south Fort Worth.
A fifteen foot tall proposed replacement for the “Homeless Christmas Tree” is presently under fabrication. This would be a Cor-Ten steel impressionistic sculpture anchored to a concrete footing.
The present “Homeless Christmas Tree” is a mimosa on a hill on the north side of Interstate-30, halfway between Beach Street and Oakland. The tree is re-decorated at various times during the year, but is getting old. It may last two more years or maybe ten. But when it falls, there will be a replacement ready.
DRESS MODEL LAMPS
The dress model lamps were inspired by a similar lamp in Vera Cruz, Mexico, although Jim’s are more sexually revealing. Ten of these somewhat risqué lamps have been done.
POSTAGE STAMP PORTRAITS
The postage stamp portrait collages were done in desperation. After fifty years of stamp collecting, no one had ever asked to see his collection. The inspiration for these came from Chuck Close’s grid paintings of the human face. An example is “Judy” in The Fort Worth Modern permanent collection.
COLORED GLASS PORTRAITS
The colored glass-chip portraits were an off-spring of the dress model lamps. At first, he thought that these portraits would be back lit, as the lamps. But the best presentation was with a white plastic backing. Jim has done over fifty of these portraits.
LARGE OBJECTS
The various large, Andy Warhol style objects were a solution to the need for end tables. The “Spam Can” won a spot in a 2005 summer exhibit in the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There were over 5,000 entries from California to Texas, with only 101 chosen.
Other objects were suggested by friends. The “Oreo Cookie” coffee table was an idea of bicycle riding friend Steve Bales. The four-foot diameter table is constructed of cement over a wood frame.
The “Pork Brains in Milk Gravy Can” was an idea from Buster Fenton, another bicycle riding friend and expert cook, who is familiar with this East Texas delicacy.
The ten foot long working slide rule is a replica of Jim’s father’s slide rule. It was suggested by Jim’s college roommate, Eddie Bennett.