James Blair Thompson

Class of 1973: Artist

From a 33-year career as a professor at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, to a prolific and varied exhibition schedule, James Blair Thompson established a formidable artistic reputation as one of the most innovative and intriguing artists and educators from the Pacific Northwest.

He was born in July 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. He majored in art at Ripon College and participated in Parallax. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis in 1977.

A teaching fellowship during graduate school at Washington University began Thompson’s teaching career, followed by service as an instructor of art at Ripon College and a visiting assistant professor of art at the University of Alaska.

He taught at Willamette University from 1986 until his death, eventually becoming a professor of art and curator. He also taught as resident faculty director in overseas programs in London, England, and Galway, Ireland.

At Willamette, he taught a variety of studio art classes in painting, printmaking, drawing, and design, in addition to courses in art history, architecture, colloquia, seminars and independent study courses. He also curated exhibitions of nationally and internationally recognized artists at several galleries.

As an inter-media creative practitioner working in painting, printmaking, mixed-media, drawing and kiln-formed glass, Thompson was known primarily as a painter and printmaker, and in his final years also as a kiln-formed glass artist.

Thompson’s art is in collections including the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem, Oregon, Hawaii State Art Museum in Honolulu, Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Orkney Archaeological Society in Scotland, Evansville Museum of Art and Science in Evansville, Indiana, corporate collections in Portland, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Seattle; and many private and university collections, including Ripon College.

He was selected for the Portland Art Museum’s 1999 Oregon Biennial, won the Newcomer Award in the Bullseye Glass, “Emerge 2014” international juried art glass competition and was awarded Artist Residency at La Porte Peinte Centre Pour Les Arts, Noyers Sur Surein, France.

The book “James B. Thompson: Fragments in Time,” was distributed by the University of Washington Press in conjunction with a 20-year retrospective exhibition of his work in 2016. In that book, he explained that his art was created by exploring and discovering along the way. “I don’t know what I’m going to find sometimes. It’s a mystery. Which I like,” he said.

He also said on the occasion of his retrospective: “I’m still making things. I am still using my hands and my mind. You have such a short time on this planet. You really want to try to figure out a few things before you go.”

He died Oct. 27, 2019, at age 68.