There is gift-exchange in my life, to be sure, but even I have never had the nerve to try an experiment as full as the one you undertook. Bravo!

- Lewis Hyde, author of The Gift

You are perfectly right about landscapes being OK in the post-historical phase of art. But somehow more in the spirit of the times is your project of itinerancy, which has a performance dimension...

- Arthur Danto

Jim is redefining painting as a civil discourse that is intentionally situated in a community setting and mediated through his act of painting place. His skill as a plein air painter affords him a direct and unencumbered relationship with the public, creating a space where meaningful dialogue about place and belonging can occur.

- Paul Bartow, Advisor to Mildred's Lane, Contemporary Art Complexity

At a time when the visual arts seem to be overtaken by the flat screen, Mott's active engagement with paint and people renews the deep connection between the artist and our surroundings.

- Marjorie B. Searl, former Chief Curator Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester

If anyone represents the ideal of what it should mean to be an artist right now, it's Jim Mott.

Dave Dorsey, Represent weblog (full review here)

The project is inventive and inspiring, but its real depth comes from the quality of Mott's work – his fabulous sense of color, his gestural but articulate brush strokes... His paintings are such a pleasure to look at: as visually and emotionally engaging as the project is conceptually intriguing.

- Susan Dodge Peters, Director of Education, Memorial Art Gallery


This is good stuff...culturally significant. The things you have done are not within the realm of possibility for most people, even most artists. And yet it is a dream we all want to see lived out, something anyone can find inspiration in.

- Bronwyn Moyer, artist and writer

What impressed me was that Jim walked in and immediately did a great painting. I never had such an appreciation of a Chicago alley as after I looked at his painting. He makes things beautiful that you might not have otherwise thought of that way.

- Colette Novich, host, Chicago, IL

That's my chair! That's my backyard! I see it every day, and now it's a work of art!

- Norma Marciano, host, Las Vegas, NV

Well... Why not?

-Missoula Traffic Court Judge when asked if I could pay a speeding fine with art