James ‘Jim’ Voshell, artist who documented Baltimore’s hardscrabble neighborhoods, dies

James “Jim” Voshell, an artist whose meticulous paintings and murals documented Baltimore’s hardscrabble neighborhoods, died of diabetic complications April 27 at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 80 and lived in Monkton.

Morning commuters once passed his photo-realistic mural of men playing checkers at Edmondson Avenue and Franklintown Road. Despite becoming one of the city’s most acclaimed public art projects, the building on which it was painted was demolished.