Tim’s work is 3-D, spatial sculpture that generally begins on a constructive surface Tim builds upon. Sometimes he paints or collages on the surface. He uses electro-mechanical, time-related aspects as well, but right now he is making an effort to reduce these elements. “I’m returning to working on panels,” he says. “For artistic reasons, I’m in a reductive phase with my work.”
Tim’s art career has taken him up and down the West Coast, from Oregon to Alaska to California. He ... view more »
Tim’s work is 3-D, spatial sculpture that generally begins on a constructive surface Tim builds upon. Sometimes he paints or collages on the surface. He uses electro-mechanical, time-related aspects as well, but right now he is making an effort to reduce these elements. “I’m returning to working on panels,” he says. “For artistic reasons, I’m in a reductive phase with my work.”
Tim’s art career has taken him up and down the West Coast, from Oregon to Alaska to California. He currently resides in North San Jose, where he alternates remodeling his home with working in his studio. “I need a lot of space to walk around in, to think in. I always end up pushing myself out of my work space. My tools take up too much room.” If Tim could have anything, it would be a bigger studio. “And time,” he adds. “I always need more time.”
After attending Portland State University, Tim found the Visual Arts Center in Anchorage, Alaska. After he received his BFA, Tim stayed on at the VAC for eight years. “I learned how to be an artist there. My biggest influences were the artists who came to VAC.” At the time, Alaska was flush with oil money, and a young, liberal population that supported the arts. Well-known artists made the trek to Alaska, living, working and teaching other artists.
Although Tim showed talent as a child, drawing obsessively, his father insisted he “learn a trade.” Tim worked at construction jobs for several years before moving to Alaska. “It helped my art,” he states. “I’d give the same advice to other artists. It’s hard to count on art as a sole means of making a living.” For the last eleven years, Tim has worked as a facilities manager at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, and designed several of its exhibitions. He also spends up to twenty hours a week making art. In the past, he taught art at local community colleges, where he told his students, “Do one thing, then drop it. Then do another and drop that. You have to work on a lot of projects to get one really good one.” Tim noticed the tendency of students to become discouraged if they didn’t make a masterpiece the first time they tried.” “You have to work and work and work. Make a thousand pieces. You might get ten you want to keep.”
Tim came to San Jose from Alaska in order to get his MFA, and though his career as an artist is clearly mature, he doesn’t feel established. “I’m always trying new things. Artists need to stretch themselves all the time.” Right now Tim would like to find an agent – someone with a grasp of the business side of art. “I’ve never been much good at marketing myself. The business side takes too much time, time I’d rather use to make things.”
All art is connected, Tim notes: “poetry and art get closest to the transcendental world. I find it interesting that people seem willing to accept religion, but are resistant to art. Maybe it’s fear-based, I don’t know – to me, they’re both saying the same thing about the world.”
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