Jim McHenry is an Alexandria, Virginia based artist. He has lived in the Alexandria area for the past 25 years. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he attended the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering.
Jim has always been interested in creating art from repurposed objects. In this work, he has collected license plates from every state in the continental United States. Each state is hand cut and shaped as closely as possible to accurately reflect its geographical boundaries. The repurposed wood, for the map, is part of an old barn door that once stood in Easton, Maryland. The map was finished in 2012 but took approximately six months to create. One interesting fact, the State of Texas depicts an inverted space shuttle. This was done to commemorate the Columbia Shuttle disaster which occured over Texas on February 1, 2003.
Jim never imagined his work would be featured in a gallery but is excited to be part of the Nepenthe Gallery and its vision to bring unique and interesting art from around the globe to our local community.
