James Perkins is an American sculptor whose work engages the legacy of Land Art through a contemporary lens. Known for his site-specific installations and materially rich “post-totem structures”, Perkins creates a contemporary discourse for the nonsite—a term first coined by Robert Smithson in 1968—by collaborating with nature as both process and medium. His silk canvases, stretched across wooden frames and buried in the earth for up to two years, are shaped by salt, soil, sun and storm.

His practice merges the conceptual lineage of artists like Smithson, Michael Heizer and James Turrell with the painterly sensibilities of Ad Reinhardt, Barnett Newman and Helen Frankenthaler. Grounded in physical labor and elemental transformation, Perkins’s work invites reflection on landscape, abstraction and our shared vision of the future.

In this interview, sculptor James Perkins reflects on the balance between exertion and stillness, solitude and connection. He shares how self-care rituals such as physical training, long salt baths, winter reading and environmental immersion support both emotional resilience and the elemental rhythm of his creative process.

AS: What are some self-care practices that you find most benefit your work & creative output?

JP: My main self-care practice is working out. My sculpture practice and process are very physical involving digging ditches and carrying fifty-pound paintings across a field, and I usually do it alone. If I don’t get distracted by the physicality, then it allows me to be more creative. And, as we know, working out is so good for the brain. When I was young my workouts consisted of weight training and basketball, in college it became golf and squash, when I moved to New York it was yoga followed by surfing, and today it is primarily tennis and running. So I change it to keep me interested and it is also part of a larger practice of always learning new things.

AS: In what ways do you nurture your mental and emotional health to maintain creativity and inspiration?

JP: Isolation. When managed correctly it can go from not just sustaining mental health but also become a superpower. 

In today’s world it can be very difficult to quell the fear of missing out, but I believe isolation is so key in quieting all the noise, incubating oneself and developing mature concepts. We create in a world that is much more competitive than the art world of the 1960s for instance when things were much smaller, and more experimental, with people working to push their ideas without thinking about posting them online. Today there is a rush that reduces art to products, and ideas to brands which can interfere with true inspiration and natural development. I had to learn to give myself permission to miss openings and parties and fairs to protect my muse.

“I HAD TO LEARN THAT SAYING NO TO EVERYTHING OUT THERE WAS A WAY OF SAYING YES TO MYSELF, TO SUSTAIN MY MENTAL HEALTH AND PROTECT MY CREATIVITY.” - James Perkins

AS: What practices or routines do you incorporate into your daily life to support your work while maintaining your creative energy and mental well-being?

JP:  I am a big bath taker with salts. Either in the morning before starting my day, or in the evening to calm my energy. I also enjoy taking care of our various collections around the house, organizing them, displaying them, making things interesting to look at and easy to explore. Whether it be books, magazines, ancient Greek coins, ceramics, records, crystal and silver objects or even organizing the closets. Lately it has been flowers and plants, perhaps because it is freezing in New York at the moment and I miss my beach studio. 

Photo: James Perkins's Fire Island studio by architect Horace Gifford.

AS: How do you handle setbacks or challenges in your creative endeavours while still prioritizing your well-being?

JP:  I analyze them and think about what I could have done better creatively, strategically or emotionally. 

Did I take something too personal? Did I not trust myself? I can really beat myself up and lose sleep. I like something Novak Djokovic explained about performance, its not that we shouldn’t feel those emotions of disappointment, because we are human, but it is in how quickly we recover from them where the better performance lies. I am quite resilient and I always bounce back. 

I am working on shortening the recovery time and being kinder to myself.

AS: What specific environment or settings do you find especially conducive to both self-care and creative inspiration?

JP:  I love my beach studio! I only make work there. I am infinitely inspired by the ocean, the bay, and the sunsets. In the winter when I can’t work at the beach and I am back in the city, that time is for reading, writing, and contemplation where I love complete silence and still need plenty of natural light. The beach could also be replaced with anyplace outdoors really. 

Recently, I completed a site-specific land art installation for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in the Arizona dessert ahead of my museum show and loved the experience. 

AS: Best self-care advice you have received?

JP:  When I first moved to New York, my first boss said, “there’s a gym down the street, after this interview, you should go get a membership, you will need it.” Working out is just not for atheletes, it is necessary self-care for everyone, like the ocean or art.

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