Meet James Mueller

We recently connected with James Mueller and have shared our conversation below.

James, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

To what do I owe my resiliency? I have to create! It’s not even a rational decision – no more than breathing is. From my earliest memories, I created: drawing, building, writing – whatever it took to make my dreams come alive. Paint the picture you always wanted to see and write the novel you always wanted to read -but for me, it even went further: paint the world and write the novel you always wanted to live in. And therein lies the catch. You can’t, of course, unless you settle for a world that can never be.

Catcher in the Rye changed all that. That was a reality I could live with. At that point, I was determined to continue where Holden had left off and write the “Great American Novel.” But it wasn’t until I read Portnoy’s Complaint that I knew how I would do it. Before that, I merely dabbled in satirical caricatures, comedy skits, and playwriting – initially inspired by Twain, John Osborne (Look Back in Anger), and comedians, but it wasn’t until Salinger and Roth that I found my “voice” and it all came together. From then on, everything I did was merely a means to achieve that goal. Even my painting was initially just a means to write. I just didn’t think it would become as successful as it did.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I always remember what one scholar of modern American literature said – “I like your art, but it pales next to your writing. It’s every bit as good as Saul Bellow.” To make a long story short, to support myself while writing “The Great American Novel,” I had an art show in Washington, DC, sponsored by Senator Pete Domenici from Mexico in 1976; later that year, a show in Miami, Florida that was bought out by Robert Abplanalp, the world-famous industrialist, and from that point on he essentially brought every painting I ever painted. In 1980, he flew me up from Miami, where I lived, to meet Richard Nixon in Manhattan and paint his portrait. In 1988, I had a one-man show in Paris, France, with great reviews, and a year later, I was invited by the president of Beaux-Arts to exhibit at the exclusive Beaux-Arts. And I could go on and on, but the bottom line is none of this success advanced my main goal – that of completing “The Great American Novel.” So shortly after that, I took the “vows of poverty,” essentially living a monastic lifestyle working and living with the mentally handicapped at a place called Rainbow Acres in Camp Verde, Arizona, so I could, for the next 22 years, finish up “The Great American Novel” free of the demands of the art world. And that’s when I decided to incorporate my paintings into my novel.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three skills? Artist, writer, and TOTALLY innovative! What sets me apart from others?
1) Hundreds of paintings and black and white drawings.
2) A picaresque (as well as picturesque) novel in the tradition of Catcher in the Rye, Portnoy’s Complaint, and Catch-22, but with one more catch.
3) The narrator IS the artist. Set against the background of drawings and paintings as diverse as Daumier and Degas, Hopper and Homer, the stories are woven together in such a way they can only be described as a unique hybrid – a literary novel and an art book that has no rival in the history of the novel (in this case, a trilogy).

And what’s my main reason for writing the Confessions of St. Augustine trilogy?  Because I believe the arts have the most incredible power to influence people. That’s the rational side of me.  Ironically, the other side of me – the real source of my creativity- would rather write the “perfect novel” and never be read than write a hundred lesser ones and be read by everybody (to get back to my opening statement).  Like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or The Hands of Orlac, my mind and my hands would eventually betray me, and anything less but more practical was doomed to failure because I would rather create that one great masterpiece that would take a lifetime of complete dedication than all those one hundred lesser ones that I knew would guarantee me a life of fame, fortune, and ease.

Which is why people over the years would ask me why I never pursued my painting when I could have had it all? – fame, fortune, and comfort?  Simple.  Because I never would have created that novel, which I have always wanted to read. Just those paintings I always wanted to see.

Call it hubris or just being the consummate artist, but an artist who spends a lifetime on a work of art that may never be seen, read, or heard has to believe it was worth it.  For example, 100 years from now, I want my novel to be regarded as the greatest novel of the 21st Century. In the meantime, however, I’ll settle for that cult-like following that generated the kind of response that classics like The Catcher in the Rye, Portnoy’s Complaint, and Catch-22 generated – the type of novel that not only spoke to a whole generation – but the kind of novel that changed a whole generation – and since I’m already getting responses from readers of every persuasion from every major continent* listing it on Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere as one of their all-time favorite novels along with the greatest novels of all-time, including the greatest novel of the 20th Century, ULYSSES! The real question now is – where do I go from here? And that’s where my par excellence promoter, Grace McCormick of Lightfinder PR, comes in. Because it’s obvious the one thing I’ve lacked up until Grayce (besides modesty) is a good promoter.

* – No buyers from Antarctica yet.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

To continue with the 4th question: starting with the Bible, which I read repeatedly, every classic listed on the world’s most excellent lists (yes, even Finnegans Wake) – to the point where they’ve all become the groundwork for everything I think, do, say, and write about.

I now live and work with the Apache Indians at the Middle Verde Rock Church by the Yavapai Apache Reservation in Middle Verde.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://muellerartandliterature.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/confessionsofstaugustine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IconoclastPublishingLLC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@confessionsofst.augustine4094

Image Credits

James Mueller