Jim Hardy was born June 13, 1976 in New Haven, Connecticut. His journey has led him to a life of service to his community and a creative obsession for making art. Jim Hardy holds a BFA in Painting from the Hartford Art School (1999) and a MFA in Studio Art and Woodworking from the Rochester Institute of Technology (2006). While working on his MFA, he also earned a Masters in Science of Teaching in Art Education from The Rochester Institute of Technology(2005). After graduate school, he taught Elementary School Art and exhibited for two Years in Rochester, New York before returning home to New Haven. Since 2007, Jim Hardy has been making and teaching art in New Haven, Connecticut where he spends his days using his talents to serve his community and his evenings creating art. Jim Hardy's most recent series of art is inspired by graffiti art and narrative artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Ben Shahn, Francisco Goya and Kathe Kollwitz. Hardy asks, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, what affect would inserting one word into a picture have on the viewer? How would it affect the way the story was interpreted?" These questions are what drives his current body of digital images. Words and people are interwoven together to illustrate of the beauty of humanity. hardy-art.com