Tim Timmerman's Blog

"A Suggestion as to How Many Times to Knock Before you May Possibly Get an Answer," Tim Timmerman, oil on panel/mixed media, 26"x17"x4", 4/10 (the original version)

If you go back to a post that I wrote on April 16th of this year, I talk about a piece I completed that has the very long title, “A Suggestion as to How Many Times to Knock Before you May Possibly Get an Answer,” based on a parable in Luke 11, verses 5-10.

This piece was selected to travel with an exhibition entitled “Picturing the Parables” with CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) http://www.civa.org/ for about three years.  I knew I took a chance when I used a slip cast monk for the figure at the top of this piece.  Sure enough, I got word that despite bubble wrap packing the figure broke to pieces on the second shipping of the artwork.  A side comment here that the most common time for a work to get broken is not when it is on the wall but when it is being transported.

So, with the rest of the work off at another part of the country, I constructed this time out of wood a new figure.  This one a “king Jesus” of sorts that is facing the viewer but sleeping.  I sent this off to be attached to the piece and will show you a revised image of the work when I get it.  I think he’ll fare better than the last figure, and in the end, had to admit that I felt the new figure was a better solution.

Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving.  There is a gift even in broken things!

The top ceramic figure shattered after shipping

The new revised wooden figure that will be on the top of the piece.

A sketch I did a bit ago. Don't ask what it means simply explore it and see what the work tells you. If I could of explained it in words I would of written it all down; that's why we draw you know.

So much to draw, so little time.

If you are beside yourself as to what to draw – for you know you SHOULD be drawing something!   Here are some suggestions.  A student today saw a drawing I had jotted out on a to-do list and asked, “What’s that for?”  I replied, “I did it because I had to.”

A sketch I affectionately called "Pray Hard"

Draw:

•  your better angels.

•  hope as best as you know it.

•  the home where your heart is.

•  flowers, like you mean it (and without being sarcastic).

•  something that would make your mother proud.

•  the conversation you wanted to have but didn’t.

•  a fairy tale character that you can relate to.

•  your favorite cereal (the box doesn’t count).

•  things better left unsaid.

•  time, and time again.

•  a lammergeyer or hoopoe.

•  light coming through a window.

•  peace in a place of dissent.

•  everything within a five foot proximity to you.

•  your grandfather’s ideal.

Often I'll sketch with whatever color pen I can get a hold of.

•  what’s biting at your heels.

•  that sinking feeling.

•  laughter.

•  singing.

•  what you remember best.

•  Fisher Price toys.

•  kindness.

•  an optimistic remark.

•  the remains of the day.

Relaxing on a log, a set of sand cast faces I made this fall on the Oregon coast.

Tools of the trade a box of goodies waiting to be used and a set of casts setting up.

For years, since I begun teaching at George Fox we always do an art retreat in the fall on the Oregon coast in Newport.  Being the sculpture professor that I am, we have to take advantage of being on the coast, and do a little art project out there.  What better sculpture project to do in the sand but sand casting?!

The students and I always have a great time, and sometimes actually create something that looks semi-decent.  Every year I make about two to three “faces.”  This past year I brought in a variety of small trinkets and assemblage material and  went to town and created over ten.  There were a couple of pieces that didn’t survive due to a sneaker wave that wiped out a whole community of our pieces that we were working on, but all in all we had a very productive day.

We’ll see if something comes of these critters.  You may have seen versions of them showing up in some of the 2-D work I was doing last fall, what happens to these guys we’ll see….

Go make something.

"Bottle Nose" waiting in his little hole for the plaster so he can be cast.

"Bottle Nose" complete and out of the sand drying. Kind of fun teeth huh?

Mary McCleary, "What is Hidden Everywhere" mixed media collage on paper

Mary McCleary, "A Hundred Familiar Objects Which No Longer Exist" mixed media collage on paper

I met Mary McCleary years back at a conference when I got to see a broad swath of her work at an exhibition she was having in Dallas.  I immediately became a fan. It’s also a delight to meet an artist who is as kind and as approachable as her work as McCleary was.

Speaking about her today in one of my classes I thought I’d share her work with you here if you haven’t seen it.  She is a meticulous narrative painter at heart with a wonderful sense of depth, insight, and irony in her work.  Technically the pieces are just a wonder to behold, as she constructs them out of thousands of little objects: painted chips, twigs, rope and trinkets.  Check out her site that is overflowing with images of artistic integrity, tradition, and innovation at:  http://www.marymccleary.com/index.html

(Click on the photos in this post to see them larger.)

Mary McCleary, "Praising the Beauty of What is Transient" mixed media collage on paper

Mary McCleary, "Allegory of the Senses" mixed media collage on paper