James D. Poole earned a B.F.A. in illustration and printmaking at The School of the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio in 1971, held a printmaking assistantship at Rosary Hill College in 1972, and earned an M.F.A. in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Subsequently he participated in a summer program at the Santa Reparata Graphic Art Center in Florence, Italy. Until 2005 he was a professor of fine arts teaching printmaking at the College for Creative Studies in the College of Art & Design in Detroit. In 2003 his solo exhibition in the Rental Sales Gallery of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery featured his approach to drawing in geometric and more organic abstraction. Previously his work has been exhibited extensively in Michigan, and in Oregon, Florida, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Kansas, New York, Oklahoma, Georgia, California, and Indiana. Overseas his work has been shown in Korea, England, France, Belgium, Japan, and Canada.