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" Astros Win / Astros Lose" James Kanan, image size 8 x 10" silver plate daguerreotype y. 2006 A native of Denver, Jim grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches with a major in Radio-Television-Film. After college he moved to Austin, where he was a founding member of two now-legendary bands, El BJ and Poison 13. Putting his filmmaking skills to work, Jim produced a music video for El BJ’s song that he wrote, “Gomer Pyle is God”, which was featured at numerous clubs and festivals, as well as at a private screening for Jim Nabors. He produced a music video for Poison 13’s song “One Step Closer” which was also showered with awards. Moving to Houston in the mid-1980s, Jim began a series of creative collaborations with sculptor Steve Paulk inspired by their observations on social issues, pop culture and religion. Their 1987 “Texan-Mexan Drive-In” in Market Square Park, featuring an installation of Jim’s films, was funded through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Other notable pieces during this collaboration included “Paging Oral Roberts”, installed at the Texas Sculpture Symposium in San Antonio. A grant received from SWAMP funded Jim’s video installation “It’s Easier Said than Done” and a piece called “Confessions of a Joker” that was in a group show at the Glassell School of Art. Jim produced and directed “Fishmonger”, a film homage to Gulf Coast artist Forrest Bess. Various members of Houston’s art community participated in front of and behind the camera on this film, which was shown at the Dallas Video Festival and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He also created a short-lived public access series about Houston’s art community, “Sweet Jellos of Texas” which featured a lively interview with the late Walter Hopps. Jim has worked for FotoFest since its inception in the late 1980s, overseeing and coordinating installations at spaces throughout greater Houston. He designed and supervised the installation of their biennials in the George R. Brown Convention Center in 1990, 1992 and 1994. For FotoFest 2006 Jim constructed and installed “The Sound of Silence” for internationally renowned artist Alfredo Jaar at DiverseWorks. Jim has worked extensively in the Texas film industry as a production designer, art director, scenic painter and carpenter on numerous movies and commercials. He is a longtime member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Jim’s interest in daguerreotype photography led him to explore the process beginning in 2005, when he purchased an 8 x 10 view camera and began taking pictures. The ten pieces featured in the exhibition SMOKING MIRRORS are a fascinating reflection of his contemporary approach to updating this classical process. Each person’s experience of the photographs is uniquely interactive, given the illusive nature of how the images appear. Jim
married Marian Luntz in a memorable wedding at The Orange Show in 1987.
She is the film and video curator at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and
a longtime co-producer of the Houston PBS series, “The Territory”.
Their daughter, Zoe, a student at Lamar High School, serves on the Teen
Council of the Contemporary Arts Museum and has received many honors as
a figure skater.
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