Home

About the Artist:

Hi I'm Jim. I was a lieutenant in the 7th ID Light, Forward Support Battalions, in Fort Ord and Fort Lewis 89-93. It was during the first Persian Gulf War but I never went to war. I was terrified. I stopped watching T.V. and wrote a whole novel during those years. When I got out I moved to Seattle and became a social worker and artist. I used to paint, and over the years, now, make masks. I found out that creating something every day helps incredibly with any type of stress, trauma, or pain. I now make leather painted masks every day and have made over 1400 since March 2019. They were my saving grace during the pandemic and beyond. I encourage everyone to do something creative for at least a few minutes every day. It allows us to take our bad energy and make it good. It really does. Here is my Artist Statement:

Artist Statement, James Melville Corey

I am a leather mask maker from Seattle who has made over 1400 masks since March 2019. The mask making process every day allows me to turn my anxiety, fear, and self-doubt daily into something true, beautiful, and good.

​

This practice emerged out of a confluence of events in 2018: A Commedia dell’Arte mask making workshop in Florence, my entry into Jungian psychotherapy, and a necessity to take my hypomania, or extra energy, and channel it into a creative outlet.

​

In Jungian psychotherapy I learned about the ego, the mask we show others. I learned about the shadow, that which we hide from others. I experienced the process of holding my shadow up into the light of personal reflection and witnessing it. These masks are a physical manifestation of my individuation.

​

James Melville Corey

Jim