James Tughan is primarily known for being a visual artist working in visual mapping with chalk pastels, as a cartographic realist. This work celebrates attachment to visible surfaces of the northern Ontario wilderness but additionally with the less visible human psyche, through a careful use of metaphor. He is also an extensively published artist having had his work appear in magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, House and Garden, Saturday Night, Financial Post Magazine, and Atlantic Monthly. As an art educator, he is a past-serving member of the art faculties of Sheridan University, Redeemer University College and Tyndale Seminary and College.
More recently he has been drawn into the world of poetry, through the need to articulate more directly certain aspects of the world of persons, the world of spirit, both in terms of lament and of celebration.
He founded The Semaphore Fellowship and co-founder of the Flagship Gallery, Hamilton, and its firstborn, The Portage Art Group, a small collective of Ontario artists focused on mental health and the Arts. He is currently studying the intersection of theology, psychology, and artistry at McMaster Divinity College in the MTS/DPT program, where he is also the current artist-in-residence.
His work is available for viewing at: tughansemaphore.wordpress.com
The work of Portage is to be found at portagesemaphore.ca