ABOUT THE ARTIST
James F. Dicke II was born in 1945 in San Angelo, Texas. Raised in Ohio and Indiana, he returned to Texas for college at Trinity University and has built a thriving career as a businessman in Ohio. Dicke is also an artist. A photographer from the age of five, he started painting at Culver Military Academy in 1963 under the tutelage of the late Warner Williams, a bas-relief, realist artist. Later, he studied with Nelson Shanks of Pennsylvania.
Dicke’s work has been influenced by his extensive collection of 19th century, 2Oth century and contemporary art. Other decisive influences are Nature and the Hubble Space Telescope. Built to see beyond what scientists had previously calculated as the edge of all material existence, the Hubble has had an incredible impact on the scientific world. New and spectacular images and information arrive each week, challenging our fundamental ideas about galaxies, space, limitless boundaries and the universe. Dicke asserts that these wonders are reflected in our backyard via the beauty of overgrown nature.
Dicke believes that a work of art should engage viewers, draw them into its surface and share with them the wonder and experience of the artist.