James Fredric "Jim" Harter

James Fredric (Jim) Harter Oct. 2, 1941 - Oct. 7, 2015 LUBBOCK-James Fredric (Jim) Harter, 74, of San Antonio died Oct. 7, 2015. A memorial service will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 14, in the Coates Chapel at the Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta, San Antonio, with Rudi Harst of Celebration Circle officiating. A reception will follow. Burial will be in Lubbock at a later date. Arrangements are by Porter Loring Mortuary. An additional memorial service will be held for Jim in Amarillo on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Children's Chapel at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 1601 S. Georgia Street, with The Rev. David Green officiating. A reception will follow. The first child of Joseph Walter Harter and Bennett Curry Harter, Jim was born Oct. 2, 1941, in Lubbock. He graduated from Monterey High School in May, 1960. Later that year, Jim enlisted in the U.S. Army, doing basic training at Fort Ord, California. He was honorably discharged in 1962. Upon returning home, he enrolled at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Jim's work experience was wide ranging. From the time he was young, he delivered newspapers, mowed lawns, worked wheat harvests, drove tractors, stacked hay bales, installed storm windows and worked in steel prefabrication. After a short time as owner of his own trucking business, he returned to college at West Texas State University in Canyon, earning a degree in business by summer 1969. He moved to Austin and then San Antonio where he got a job as a welfare caseworker. His interest in art blossomed in the late 1960s, when he became fascinated by the psychedelic posters he had seen in San Francisco while working as a truck driver. From 1969 to the mid-1970s, Jim began producing surrealist collages from 19th century engravings, inspired by the San Francisco collage artist Wilfried Satty. Jim produced psychedelic posters for numerous bands that performed at such legendary Austin venues as the Vulcan Gas Company and Armadillo World Headquarters. A selection of those posters was published by Speleo Press of Austin, in 1973, under the title Die Gretchen. By 1976, Jim was living and working in New York City as a freelance illustrator. Over the years, he developed a massive archive of 19th and early 20th century line art from engravings, acquired on trips to European and American cities. From 1978 through 2007, he utilized that collection to compile imagery for clip-art books on many subjects for Dover Publications and other publishing houses. His art has appeared in a wide range of publications, from the Berkley Barb to the New York Times. Harter called France home for a while in the 1970s, spending his time there studying an old masters painting technique. He used that technique to create visionary paintings beginning in the 1980s. Jim drew on symbolism, surrealism and fantastic realism. His exposure to Eastern philosophy while traveling through India also influenced his work. Jim's art was referenced in The Collage Handbook, (1985). His two books of collages, Journeys in the Mythic Sea, (Harmony Books, New York, 1985) and Initiations in the Abyss: A Surrealist Apocalypse, (Wings Press, San Antonio, 2002) showcase the richness and depth of his imaginative abilities. His collage works transport the viewer into fantastic alternate worlds and provide sharply incisive views. His book, American Railroads of the Nineteenth Century (Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, 1998) was listed as an exceptional book of 1998. Jim's other book subjects included collections of line art engravings showing the evolution of world railroads, tractors, cars and trucks. Jim moved to San Antonio in 1986, where he grew a wide and diverse group of friends, many of whom were students of the spiritual teacher, Adono Ley. Jim supported himself for many years as a cab driver, gaining an encyclopedic knowledge of San Antonio and its neighborhoods. In recent years, he returned to painting, inspired by some of his earlier collages and new visions. In addition, he digitally colorized many of his collage creations. His most recent book, Early Automobiles: A History in Advertising Line Art, 1890-1930, has just been published by Wings Press. In lieu of a signing party, a memorial gathering in celebration of this work and others will be held at the Twig Bookshop, San Antonio, later in October. His circles included Dr. Jean Letschert, a Belgian visionary painter and former student of artist, Rene Magritte, and Ellen Lorien and the late Franz Johfra, noted members of Holland's Metarealist group. Jim and friends spent two weeks in France in late August and early September of this year visiting Paris, sites in the Languedoc, and in the Dordogne for one last visit with Ms. Lorien. Jim is survived by his brother, Mike Harter, and wife, Monique Dupuis; sisters, Marty Marmaduke, and husband, John, and Barbara Whitton and husband, Jim; niece, Meg O'Brien and husband, Alex; nephews, Matthew Harter and wife, Kelli , Jacob Harter and Sam Marmaduke, all of Amarillo; and nephew, Owen Marmaduke, of New York City. He is also survived by an aunt, Drusilla Curry Cieszinski, of Roswell, N.M.; two great-nieces and one great-nephew, as well as numerous beloved cousins and friends. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests gifts in memory of Jim Harter be made to the Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta, San Antonio, TX 78205. You are invited to sign the Guestbook at www.porterloring.com.