the mapping of ideas
James Tughan is primarily known for being a visual artist working in visual mapping with chalk pastels, This work celebrates attachment to visible surfaces of the northern Ontario wilderness but additionally to the less visible landscape of the human psyche, through a careful use of metaphor.
More recently he has been drawn into the world of poetry, which has given him a way to articulate more directly certain aspects of these worlds: in celebration and lament, in over view and intimate touch. But then the drawings have always been poetry.