James, Van: - Van James is an artist, author, Steiner-Waldorf educator, and international advocate for the arts. A longtime teaching artist in Hawai'i, he is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor with the Academy of Himalayan Art and Child Development, editor of Pacifica Journal, and an award-winning author of numerous books on culture and the arts, including Painting with Hand, Head and Heart: A Natural Approach to the Art of Painting (2013); The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature (2007); and Spirit and Art: Pictures of the Transformation of Consciousness (2003).