James Calvin was born in 1958 in Wheeling, West Virginia and, after moving to Wilmington, Delaware, graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1977. He received a BA in Art and English Literature from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1981 thanks to the unwavering support of his parents, Alva and Arthur Calvin.
In 1985 he received his MFA in Sculpture from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. He is currently living in Columbia, Missouri with his wife Rebecca and their two sons, Gabriel and Eli, where he has been teaching Sculpture at the University of Missouri since 1986.