I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, in 1955. I was raised middle-class suburban and went to Stoneleigh Elementary School. After that I was sent to McDonough School, which was a military boarding school in Maryland. After three and a half years there I went to Cherry Lawn, which was a free school in Darien, Connecticut.

In 1972 I went to California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. I entered the Theater School as an acting student and developed a strong interest in modern dance. After injuring my back I switched to the Art School where I focused on performance art under the mentorship of John Baldessari. I was fortunate to study with many brilliant teachers including Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, and Yvonne Rainer, all of whom had strong influences on me. I also spent a summer at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where I studied with Hans Haacke.

After graduation I bounced back and forth between New York and Los Angeles pursuing my art career while supporting myself by doing technical work on corporate presentations. Over time my artwork shifted to building large interactive public sculptures. In 1988 I moved to the mountains in southern California where I felt I would have the space to build much larger sculptures between traveling around the country working for my corporate clients.

In the early 1990s I became disillusioned with the art world and focused on my business career. In 1995 I realized I hated my life and had a major mid-life crisis and depression. By 1998 I was close to committing suicide when, by chance, I went to Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown, California. Harbin was a New Age community that ran a business hosting guests and workshops. It was a center for a wide variety of spiritual practices and alternative healing modalities. During my visit I experienced a breakthrough where I saw the potential to create a happier and more fulfilling life for myself. I decided to let go of my old life and within six months I was living at Harbin as a member of the community.

I dove into many of the possibilities Harbin offered and learned much about myself, people in general, and the world we live in. I studied many forms of bodywork and became a bodyworker. I studied yoga and became a yoga teacher. I dove deeply into myself exploring how I had become who I was, what parts of that were real, and what parts were the results of the things that had happened to me. I realized how my past was having a powerful, negative, effect on my present and learned how to minimize that effect. I had several amazing teachers who helped me break free of my past and taught me how to affect change in myself, and others.

Over time, I synthesized the things I had learned and created my own style of working with people. I started traveling around the world sharing this, during which time I met Sarah Wenger who became my partner. My health began to deteriorate making it difficult to walk so, in time, we settled in Vienna, Austria where we developed the work we call Deep Living. After a short stint in Wietzow, Germany, we moved to Berlin, where we continued to develop our coaching business. In time, we created a second business called, The School for Shy Men and Women, where people we had trained in our way of work became part of helping others gain confidence and overcome their fears of contact and intimacy.

In 2020 we let go of Deep Living. My focus shifted back to my creative roots. I am focusing more and more on songwriting, creating films and videos, performance, live events and a variety of other creative projects. 

Recently I created a website, www.jamesism.org, where I codify what I have learned in my studies of how to live life well, and The Green Salon, where we created a performing arts space in our home so we can produce small events.

Now I am focused on creating a series of events which will give the participants the opportunity to enjoy, and explore, social interactions, in real life.