James Picard’s Stories, Lessons & Insights

We recently had the chance to connect with James Picard and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning James, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
I think the most misunderstood thing about the business of art, is, at the heart of it, it’s really not a business. It’s a passion, it is life itself. It is bigger than any job or business that you could be in. I was always told as a young artist by galleries and agents, customers, family, friends, and other artists that you need to treat art as a business. But for me, art is a personal and spiritual journey, it is all consuming in so many ways. You give into it, You let it guide you and you do not stop creating until you take your last breath. I know many people treat it as a business, but I think that is why there is so much boring and repetitious art and creativity out there.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I was born an artist. I believe artists are born and not made. You definitely can be taught to tap into creativity, something all humans have inside them, but true artists are born with something deep inside them that always pushes creativity up to being a top priority in life.. It’s what makes us different from ordinary people. The constant need to create despite adversity or difficulties that may come along. The times where I had no money and was living a very impoverished life, I never stopped creating. If I didn’t have paints I would steal paint, if I didn’t have canvas, I would steal bed sheets from public laundromats and stretch the sheets on walls with nails. When I had no home, I would burn sticks to make charcoal and draw on walls and found boards or newspaper. I just could not stop creating as it always felt like it was something I was born to do above all else. Throughout my journey, so far in life, all the highs and lows, I’ve never stopped creating.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
When I was 19 years old, my older sister Catherine, who was one and a half years my senior, and my best friend and biggest supporter, died when she was 21. I was attending my first year of art college at the time and it really gave me a huge slap of reality. I was in Toronto at the time and had to go down to New York City and identify her body in the morgue and bring her back home. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and that made me realize how fleeting life truly is. We both lived through incredible childhood trauma together and so losing her, gave me incredible insight into inner strength and human spirit. From that moment in the morgue and onward, I never took time or life for granted and I have tried to live my life in a way that honours hers as well. And since her life was taken from her, it made me realize how dark and evil the world could truly be and how important it is to stay in that light and to always shine no matter what happens.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I have had many occasions throughout my life and career where I felt like giving up, but I always pushed through. One of the worst experiences I have endured was having agents and galleries take advantage of myself as an artist. It is actually quite common in the arts and entertainment industry to have non-creative business people take advantage and try to cheat, steal and rob from the artist. From Elvis Presley to Leonard Cohen to the Beatles to Picasso to Francis Bacon to Oscar Wilde, I found out that having an agent, steal your work and money. and even lie and besmirch your character was more common than I had known. This again goes back to being a true artist and not thinking of your work as a commodity but as something you have to do regardless. Many people only see things as a commodity and when you get a certain amount of success in the arts, there are always predatory vultures, looking to take whatever they can from you. So when this happened to me, in a big way, about a decade ago, it made me extremely wary of who I wanted to be involved with in regards to promoting or exhibiting my work. Shortly, after this happened, it did make me feel like I wanted to give up, but after a few days, I realized it wasn’t about not creating …it was about being careful of who you allowed into the creative circle, your world of light and creativity and to trust your gut instincts when it came to dealing with certain people and situations.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
One of the basic truths in life I believe is not to sweat the small stuff… and everything, when you look at the bigger picture of life, is small stuff. I see so many people feeling angry, hurt and disappointed by things that don’t really matter in the end. All of us only have a certain amount of energy to spend during our lifetime and to waste that on small, insignificant matters, to me, is very pointless.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I love this question. I am definitely doing what I was born to do. Through my life and in my travels I’ve come across people that are doing what they were told to do. They’re always trying to live up to other people‘s expectations which I think is the complete wrong direction to go in life. It is why people have a midlife crisis or why they feel so unhappy, unfulfilled or depressed. It makes them fear death because they haven’t lived the life they’ve wanted to. I haven’t had a midlife crisis, and I’m definitely not afraid of death because I’ve always done what I was born to do … create. Throughout this long strange journey called life, I’ve lived it fully and rarely spend my energy doing something that doesn’t feed my soul. For me, I’ve always and will always continue to create … paint, draw, write books, poetry, screenplays and make films.
And when my time comes to leave this earthly realm, I’ll leave happily contented having lived an incredibly productive and fulfilling life as an artist.

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Image Credits
All images and photographs owned by James Picard

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