Born 1984 in Bangkok, Thailand.
B.A. in Studio Arts (with a concentration in painting) from Wesleyan University, 2006.
I got halfway through an M.F.A. program in Sequential Art at Savannah College of Art and Design... before I dropped out. It's a long story.
Still aspiring to write and illustrate children's books and picture books for adults.
I've been keeping a diary for fourteen years, since I was ten. At this point, I have filled about fifty notebooks with words. About five years ago, I started drawing in sketchbooks, and I have piles of those as well. Then there is the world of online journals and blogs, a very addictive habit I started at age thirteen... I often wonder how many rooms I could wallpaper with all these words and pictures. I also wonder, given an apartment wallpapered in this fashion, how much time people would spend in it. If someone really, really wanted to know me, all they'd have to do would be to bring a cooler full of sandwiches and spend a week or two examining the walls. But I imagine most people would stay at a distance, just taking in the fact of the volume, getting a general sense of the way I record things.
My life is about recording; it's an almost compulsive behavior. It's partly a fear of forgetting, partly a desire to share.
Maybe one day I can pay a team of interns to photocopy all my diaries and plaster them on walls for me. Until then I will just use this website to show you how I see the world, and hope you stay for a decent amount of time.
James Kochalka's sketchbook diaries
David Heatley
Julie Doucet
Kate Beaton
Blaise Larmee
Box Brown
Kevin Strickland
Michael Lehman
Maggie Van Scoyk
Julia Sonmi Heglund
Austin Lee
Wynn Rujiraviriyapinyo - automotive photographer and proud sponsor of this website!