James Castle

1899- 1977

James Castle was born profoundly deaf into the isolated community of Garden Valley, Idaho. The fifth of seven children, his early life was spent at home after his parents decided against sending their strong-willed but vulnerable child to a public school. Obsessed with art from childhood, Castle devoted his life to producing drawings and collaged pictures, documenting his life and community with an assortment of homemade media.   His home provided inspiration, as the community post office and local general store were housed within the family residence. His early subjects were inspired by the postage stamps, calendars and catalogs he witnessed pass through his family home on a daily basis.  Other depictions included Castle’s versions of family photos and framed landscapes. Part of his work was sculptural, with Castle making inspired use of found materials such as fabric, paper, string, wood grain, nails and fish bones. His “dream houses” are examples of this technique, where Castle used saliva and soot ink, or homemade twig pens, to draw houses on ice cream cartons and other pieces of discarded paper. Extremely prolific, Castle produced numerous stylized bound volumes with titles such as Code Books, Calendar Books, How-to Books and Pattern Books. ¹