Narratives about the connections between all things are developed in my artwork through use of animal symbols and nature to create metaphors about life.

James D. Neiswender                       Artist Bio 
Though born in Washington, D.C., I have lived and worked in Alabama, New York, California, Ohio, Florida, and Texas. I am a practicing artist utilizing printmaking, photography, drawing, painting, and mixed-media. My degrees are from Pratt Institute (MFA, printmaking specialty), University of Cincinnati (M.A., Art Education), and the University of Alabama (BFA, printmaking, painting specialties). My artwork is in the collections of IBM, Southern Bell and several law firms in Cincinnati. Art experiences include artist-in-residences for the Ohio Arts Council (17 different school districts in Ohio), mural painting, teaching in community art centers, as well as teaching printmaking and figure drawing out of my studio, and 31 years teaching art in public education (20 years in Boca Raton, FL; 11 years in Texas, Marcus HS, Flower Mound, LISD), where I received national recognition. I was a recipient of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Teacher-as-Artist Program (art supplies, food, lodging and studio space were provided for two weeks) to develop my own artwork. I find solace in nature, hiking and backpacking into remote areas, and these continue to influence my artwork. I have respect and reverence for Native American culture and their ties to the earth. Native Americans represent my closet ties to ancient cave painters of Altamira, and Lasco in Europe, the earliest artists. The power and energy of those images changed the direction of my art in the early 1970’s and led me to Native Americans, the Anasazi ruins, the Medicine Wheel, and a search for Spirit.


                                                      James D. Neiswender      RESUME

7305 Mira Vista Drive, Denton, TX 76210; email: james.neiswender1@gmail.com; 940-783-852
OBJECTIVES
To gain strength and good health.
To return to hiking and backpacking in nature.
To continue my artistic pathway in a sacred way.

EDUCATION:_______________________________________
1983-1985 M.A. Degree, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Art Education
1970-1972 M.F.A. Degree, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Fine Arts (Printmaking Specialty)
1965-1969 B.F.A. Degree University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 
Fine Arts (Printmaking/Painting)

EXPERIENCE___________________________________________

2016 Retired after teaching high school art 31 years in public education in Florida (20 years, Palm Beach County SD) and Texas (11 years, Lewisville ISD). I have had an extremely fulfilling career in challenging students to reach just beyond their grasp in order to reach excellence. I found sheer joy in working with students, watching them develop, mature, and make connections, and gain a fuller understanding of their own creativity, while honing their technical art skills. This artist turned teacher became very confident in both realms, and will be an even better artist now due to those 31 years of extra training.

2005-2016 Edward S. Marcus HS, Flower Mound, TX
Art Instructor: AP Art: 2-D; AP Art: Drawing; Art 3 & 4 Drawing; Art 3 & 4 Painting;
Art 2: Drawing; Art I
Participant: 2013 SCAD Educator Essentials Conference, Savannah College of Art and Design. District Strategic Design implementation.
Initiated district art teachers’ participation in entering their students in Regional and National Scholastic Art Awards Competition in New York City. 2010 National Scholastic Art Award Winner (student) 2012 State VASE Gold Medalist and Gold Seal Winner (top 150 artworks in TX (Student)
Initiated a challenging project to engage all 256 of my art students the last two weeks of two semesters in creating a lasting legacy at Marcus HS. Students designed and created a 25’x5’ hanging banner printed with 4”x6” cut relief block of each student’s selected wild animal totem design. They depicted ¾ size human mountain climbers scaling a sheer cliff wall on both sides of the canvas banner, using stencil cutouts and Marcus school colors for “the climbers to success”. The banner was an amazing accomplishment and statement.
2010 and 2013 Workshop Presenter at StateTexas Art Education Association Annual Conventions.
Students actively entered local, state, regional, and national art competitions and garnered many awards, medals and honors in the Regional and State VASE Art Competitions, 26th Congressional District Art Competition, Regional and National Scholastic Art Awards Competitions, and many local venues.

1991-2005 (Palm Beach County School District: 1985-2005) 

Olympic Heights Community High School Boca Raton, FL
Chairperson, Art Department;
Art Instructor: Drawing, Printmaking, Photography I, III, IV, Art 2-D, Art 3-D, Painting, A.P. Art
Opened the school, set up the art department.
Increased department staff from 2 to 4 art teachers.
More than doubled student enrollment in the visual arts courses.
Developed a broad base, sequential art program offering 17 art courses.
Purchased all departmental art supplies and equipment.
Attended Department Chair Committee meetings, School Advisory Committee meetings, and Technology Committee meetings.
Participated as a district curriculum writing team member and art textbook selection committee.
Trained 23 student teachers.
1989-1991 Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton, FL
Art Instructor: Art/2-D (Foundations); Photography I; Drawing I, A.P. Art; Graphic Design
JV Girl’s Volleyball coach
1985-1989 Palm Beach Gardens High School, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Art Instructor: Printmaking; Art 2-D
Varsity Girl’s Volleyball Coach

1984 The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Drawing Instructor: Junior High School Level

1981 The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Printmaking Instructor: College Level: etching and lithography

1977-1982 Ohio Arts Council, Columbus, OH
Artist-in-Residence: conducted art workshops for over 17 elementary, middle school, and high schools, as well as community organizations in Ohio.
1979 City of Cincinnati, Painted 300 yard public wall mural on history of Cincinnati
Painted 3 interior murals for an elementary school
1977-1979 The Arts Consortium
Art Instructor: Drawing, Painting, Printmaking
Grades K-12, and adult.
Developed outreach art program for children in the local community.

1977-1983
Art Instructor: Conducted Adult Figure Drawing and Printmaking
classes in my Cincinnati Studio.
Awards AND RECOGNITIONS
Selected by the Palm Beach County School District in October, 2004, to represent art, along with one science and one social studies teacher, to be part of a large grant by Best Buy working through Ball State University to develop an “E3 Electronic Field Trip” using the archives and collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the Native American. We wrote curriculum related to Native American history and contemporary lives.
1992 Teacher-As-Artist Program Recipient sponsored by the Marie Sharpe Walsh Foundation. One of 6 art teachers in the nation selected to create personal artwork, (art supplies/food/lodging provided). Colorado Springs, CO
Conducted numerous art workshops for district art teachers and the Florida Art Education Association, as well as student art retreat workshops.
Awarded EPDA-E GRANT, Pratt Institute
Selected to be the first graduate intern from Pratt Institute to teach at the Pratt Graphic Art Center, Manhattan, N.Y.
Three art students were jurored into the National Scholastic Art Award Competitions: 1992, 2002, 2010
Numerous art students have won silver and gold keys in the Regional Scholastic Art Awards and the Florida State Fair Art Exhibit.
Received four year scholarship from National Scholastic Art Awards to the University of Alabama.
Art Juror for local and regional art competitions for other school districts.
Developed a national art exhibition record as an artist.


James D. Neiswender                                  Exhibition Record

1963 Smithsonian Institute National Print Exhibition: Traveling Ambassadors Print Exhibition  through
          Latin America      
 Alabama State Fair Birmingham, AL, Second Grand Prize
1965 Alabama State Fair Birmingham, AL, Third Grand Prize
1967 Birmingham Museum of Art Juried Exhibition, Birmingham, AL
1968 Birmingham Museum Art Juried Exhibition, Birmingham, AL
1969 Annual Piedmont Juried Print Exhibition Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
 Start Gallery Exhibit, Two-Man Exhibit, Birmingham, AL
 West Alabama Juried Art Exhibition, Tuscaloosa, AL
 Student Center Art Gallery Exhibit, Two-man Exhibit, Tuscaloosa, AL
 Botannical Gardens Art Exhibit, Birmingham, AL
1971 Park Gallery Art Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
 Higgins Hall Art Gallery Exhibit, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1972 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Group Exhibit, Brooklyn, NY
 11th Annual Westchester Juried Exhibition, Westchester, NY
1973 5th Annual National Print Exhibition, San Diego, CA
 Talisman Prints Gallery Exhibit, Laguna Beach, CA
1974 San Francisco Festival of the Arts Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
 Marin County Juried Art Exhibition, Marin, CA
1975 Quest Gallery Exhibit, Sausalito, CA
1976 Studio II Gallery Exhibit, Hamilton, OH
 Martin Luther King Juried Exhibition, Cincinnati, OH
 Ohio Printmakers Exhibition, Gallery 200, Columbus, OH
1977 Western Artists Exhibition, Studio II Gallery, Hamilton, OH
Arts Consortium Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, One-Man Exhibit
1978 Summerfair Art Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH, 1st Place, Prints Division
1979 CETA Art Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
 Third Street Studios Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
 Trumbell Art Guild, One-Man Exhibit, Warren, OH
1980 Smith, Ltd. Gallery, One-Man Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
 College of Wooster Art Gallery, One-Man Exhibit, Wooster, OH
 Third Street Studios Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH 
1981 Mansfield Art Center, “Sign, Spirit, Symbol” Art Exhibit, Mansfield, OH
Smith, Ltd. Gallery, One-Man Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Commission on the Arts Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
Third Street Studios Exhibit, Cincinnati, OH
1982 The French Art Colony Gallery, One-Man Exhibit, Gallipolis, OH
 Bellevue Public Library, One-Man Exhibit, Bellevue, OH
1985 Whitewater Valley Annual Drawing, Painting, & Printmaking Exhibit Indiana University East, Richmond, In
1986 Palmetto Gallery, NCNB, Boca Raton, FL
Ringling School of Art, Florida Art Educatiion Asociation Exhibit, Sarasota, FL
1987 Palmetto Gallery, NCNB, Boca Raton, FL
1988 Northwood Institute Art Gallery, Palm Beach County Art Faculty Exhibit, West Palm Beach, FL
1989 Northwood Institute Art Gallery, Palm Beach County Art Faculty Exhibit, West Palm Beach, FL
1990 Savannah College of Art and Design Art Exhibition, Savannah, GA
Northwood Institute Art Gallery, Palm Beach County Art Faculty Exhibit, West Palm Beach, FL
2003 Atlantic HS Art Gallery, One-Man Exhibit, Delray Beach, FL
2009 Grand Marque Art Gallery, Lewisville ISD Art Faculty Exhibit, Lewisville, TX
2012 Grand Marque Art Gallery, Lewisville ISD Art Faculty Exhibit, Lewisville, TX
2019 TVAA "Gratitude" Juried Art Exhibit, Dallas, TX
2020 Cultura Del Vaquero Juried Art Exhibit, Fort Worth Community Art Center, Fort Worth, TX