James Reed

James Reed once stated, “I never met an art form I didn’t like.” James closely observed the world around him and saw with his hands. Growing up as a boy in Ogden, Utah, he constructed complex models and created a train set that did not go around in a circle, but rather began and ended, because that was what real trains did. At the University of Utah, he studied architecture and the history of science. Nearly finishing his undergraduate degree, but with a low military service induction number during the Viet Nam War, he travelled north to be near Canada, finding safe haven in Seattle, his primary residence for the rest of his life. Music called him and he took up classical guitar and music composition at Cornish College of the Arts, where he earned a bachelor’s degree of music, studying classical guitar with Dave Burgess and composition with Denny Goodhue and Bun-Ching Lam. For many years, he devoted himself to guitar performance, teaching and practice. He taught guitar privately and through the University of Washington Continuum College and supplemented his income through other work, including as a chauffeur and a silk screen poster maker.

In his mid-thirties James made a major career shift and established a business, James Reed Furniture Design and Production. He returned to Cornish and took courses on furniture design taught by Rion Dudley, who became his mentor and friend. His signature furniture drew two impulses together—a deconstructed furniture that revealed its construction, made of mixed materials—woods, plastics and metals of various patina and anodized treatments—and a high degree of finish. His one-off creations made their way into shows, including at the American Institute of Architects in Seattle and at Cornish—and his custom ordered work found its way into law offices, media labs and galleries as well as individual homes. During the time he was changing professions, James met his life partner and spouse Jeanne Heuving at Cornish where she was teaching in the Humanities and Science division.

In the decades that followed, James resumed his engagement with architecture, creating the architectural plans and internal cabinetry, stairway and railings for a house in Huntsville, Utah commissioned by his sister and her husband Lori and Todd Matlock. He later committed his talents to Jeanne’s and his house and oversaw it lifted four feet and extended. Their small Wallingford bungalow, built before 1900, became a full- fledged two story house with a daylight workspace downstairs and more light. James was the architect, contractor and sometimes worker on the house. The house had all the design and finish as James’ furniture and was a joy for both of them.

With the completion of their house, James announced his building days as over. He said, “I never want to lift anything heavier than what I can lift with one finger.” And with this, James turned to print making and poetry writing, with the studied acumen he had given previously to music, furniture design and architecture. James pursued print making at Pratt Fine Arts Center and at Sev Shoon in Seattle. He showed his work in Seattle, Bainbridge, and Oaxaca Mexico as part of the Beyond Borders: Oaxaca-Seattle Print Exchange. He published his poetry in three books Shelter, In the Clinic of Malady C, and Every Day, and in one combined book of prints and elliptical poetry passages, Dreams of Return.

James was an avid reader and an afficionado of film. He was a dedicated walker and almost daily, walked the Arboretum, Discovery Park, or Waterfront Park as well as hiked the Cascades and red rock country in Southern Utah, usually with Jeanne. They sought out travel and shared James’ love for the Pacific Ocean—Tofino, Cape Disappointment, Santa Barbara and San Pancho; Mexico—Mexico City, the Yucatan, Oaxaca, and Puerto Vallarta; Portugal and Spain; Bergen; Paris; London; and Italian hillside towns.

James was diagnosed with advanced cancer in 2011 and was treated successfully at the University of Washington Medical Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center until November 2024 when he was recommended to hospice. He died January 3, 2025 peacefully at home.

James leaves behind his spouse Jeanne Heuving, and three sisters and their husbands, Lori and Todd Matlock, Bobbi and Craig Wold and Nancy Harlin, all of Ogden Utah, and many nieces and nephews and their children. He is also mourned by Jeanne’s sister, Mary Jo Bitner and her husband Rich of Mesa, Arizona, their children and grandchildren, and many friends in Seattle, Utah and elsewhere.

A Celebration of the Life of James Reed will be held Sunday afternoon, April 27, 1:00 – 3:00 PM Wisteria Hall in the Seattle Arboretum Visitors Center, 2300 Arboretum Drive East, Seattle WA 98112. Parking is available near the Visitors Center but often crowded. Additional street parking can be found near the concrete bridge leading into the Arboretum on Lynn Street. For directions, google Montlake Tot Lot. For questions about this event, contact Jeanne Heuving, jheuving@uw.edu.

To honor James, please send donations in his name to Cornish College of the Arts, cornish.edu/support-cornish/give-now or to the Washington Park Arboretum, botanicgardens.uw.edu/about/give.