Jim Draper grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the geographical center of the state. His work which includes drawing, painting, photography, video, and writing informed by journeys into the wilds of Florida and Georgia. He attended the University of Mississippi, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1974. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1978. Based in Jacksonville, he is currently the coordinator for the University of North Florida's galleries. Draper's work includes Full Immersion, a serial program that critically explores ways in which the natural order informs the structures and behaviors of the human experience. He is developing a site-specific installation and body of work entitled The Ditch, visual reconciliation of the disturbed landscape. Latest exhibitions include his seminal work Feast of Flowers at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens (Jacksonville, Florida) and Image Gathering + Disseminating the Natural Experience at Florida School of the Arts (Palatka, Florida). Draper has taught drawing and painting at UNF, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and Flagler College in St. Augustine. Draper's work appears in hundreds of corporate and private collections. His duties as UNF galleries coordinator include curatorial responsibilities for the campus-based University Gallery of Art and the UNF Gallery at MOCA Jacksonville. He also is responsible for the UNF permanent collection.