My name is James Akers, and I am an artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Together with my partner Ali Feeney we run Nebula Neon, a custom neon fabrication company that we started together in 2020. We have a cat named 'Chirpy' that is known amongst many glass- blowers. I enjoy traveling and have lived in Frederick Maryland, Alfred New York, Florence Italy, Norfolk Virginia, and Dallas Texas over the past ten years. Seeing different perspectives and how different people live is important to me as I broaden my own perceptions and question things that appear normal. In the studio, I create dense, frenetically active sculptures that often incorporate neon and sound circuits. For me, neon provides the eye grabbing glow of a screen in a three dimensional, shapeable, sculptural, linear glow that it is actively used in advertising. I add various modified consumer electrical circuits to to a sculpture to give that sculpture abilities, making the sculpture able to make noises, or play video, or scan an object, the possibilities go on and on. Ireceived a BFA from Alfred University in 2015 and my work has been shown at places including the Corning Museum of Glass, Color Factory Houston, Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Virginia and Fuji Studios in Italy to name a few. Artistically, I'm interested in themes of celebration, excess, mess, consumerism, bliss and rebellion. I find people doing things the 'wrong way' can be exciting and make things more interesting. I love messes and marks that result from an action, or a series of actions and I employ the 'show your work'philosophy when designing and assembling my work.