Jim Anderson didn’t set out to become an artist — he became one twice, at two very different points in his life, and both times because he needed to.
Anderson grew up in Martinez, California, in the East Bay, in a childhood marked by hardship. Art and music were his early coping mechanisms, and that resilience carried him into the Army straight out of high school, when college wasn’t an option he could afford. He went on to serve 24 years with the Army’s storied 75th Ranger Regiment, retiring as a Sergeant Major after eight deployments to Operation Enduring Freedom and four to Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was medically retired in 2017 from the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, carrying both physical injuries and PTSD that, by his own account, he didn’t fully understand the severity of until he’d already left the service. “I was a train wreck when I left the service,” he has said.
Woodworking became his way back. Anderson taught himself the craft, building a client base for commissioned pieces around Steilacoom, Washington, before enrolling at Bates Technical College in 2017 to sharpen his technical skills. He also spent time in the Tacoma Museum of Glass’s “Hot Shop Heroes” program, a glassblowing initiative built for wounded veterans, before settling into wood — and, increasingly, stained glass and light — as his primary language. Today he runs J. Anderson Wood Works, LLC, taking on commissions from furniture restoration to one-of-a-kind decorative pieces.
His signature body of work, an ongoing series of armillary spheres and celestial forms cataloged simply by number — No. 2 Celestial Compass, No. 3 Event Horizon, No. 6 Jupiter, No. 9 Aurora Borealis — reflects both his fascination with astronomy and the sheer technical range he’s built: steam-bent lamination, segmented woodturning, veneering, parquetry, carving, inlay, and epoxy casting, often combining a dozen or more hardwood species with shell, mother-of-pearl, and glass. Several pieces are built to glow under UV light.
His first armillary sphere, which took over 300 hours and a year of experimentation to complete, incorporated 22 wood species — one for each of the veterans lost to suicide every day, a statistic he built directly into the work. It won First Prize at the 2020 National Veterans Creative Arts Competition, launching a run of national recognition that has continued for years: gold medals in 2021 and 2022, a second-place finish for the 1,000-hour “No. 3 Event Horizon,” and, in 2024, a Bronze Medal for “No. 9 Aurora Borealis” and Master Woodworking Artist of the Year for “No. 6 Jupiter (aka Lathe Breaker).”
For Anderson, the work has never been separate from the healing. “Woodworking distracts me from whatever issues or pain that may be bothering me,” he’s said, and he’s made a point of using his platform — including as featured speaker at the VA Puget Sound Veterans Art Gallery’s grand opening in September 2023 — to encourage other veterans toward the same outlet. “Art can be a very healing output for Veterans,” he says. “As a veteran, it’s okay to ask for help. If you are hurting, there is help out there and you are not alone.”
Join Us December 11th, 2026 for a showcase and feature on his work at the Gallery.