This is a staged photo of me sketching at a cafe in Belgium. The drawing I'm "working on" I actually had sketched while sitting in a church earlier.
I was born in Phoenix Arizona in 1966. My father was from Brooklyn New York and my mother was from a small farm in Kansas. They met at school in Texas and choose to move to the Southwest for its job opportunities for my dad, and for the climate for my mom who was a victim of the polio virus and would have difficulties maneuvering in an area where it snowed with her back and leg brace.
My childhood was spent in shorts, selling junk I made in front of our house, drawing spaceships, creating clubs I would coerce my friends to join, and melting crayons on the sidewalk. We also had a German shepherd named Gretel who would get car sick, but was the best dog in the world. When I was about six my favorite activity (to my parents dismay) was letting her drag me across the lawn by my shoes. From the get go, I was always drawing characters (perhaps you saw some of my work in Highlights), and creating sculptures, recycling things my parents attempted to throw away. My mother was especially encouraging and faithful in the grocery store to buy me drawing pads and various art materials in the school supply aisle of Lucky’s Supermarket. I also remember fondly taking summer classes at the Phoenix Art Museum and sitting in front of Baroque portraits and doing versions of them in oil pastel.
Always much to investigate and point out in this life.
High school was spent avoiding getting beaten up, avoiding home, and enjoying the benefits of pretending to be other people. I went to college at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth for a year, and then finished my degree in studio art at Biola University in the Los Angeles area. Out of college I worked as a grade school art teacher in Carson, California and was also the assistant curator for the Los Angeles’ city art collection, as well as was the assistant curator for three other galleries that the city ran. Soon after I got into grad school to get my MFA at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Here I felt my grandparents farming blood blossom. I relished in the rolling lentil and wheat fields and small town environment of eastern Washington. After grad school I worked in Seattle, heading up art programs for the Boy’s and Girl’s Club in the city of Redmond, and also speaking to irate shoppers as a customer service phone agent for the Eddie Bauer clothing company. In 1993 I was hired by Grand Canyon University in Phoenix as their art department chair, gallery curator, and art professor. I was there for nine years. In July of 2003, I moved back to the Northwest to take a position within the art faculty at George Fox University in Newberg Oregon and have been here ever since. I live in community in a house over 100 years old and walk to work.
I have had over twenty solo exhibitions from Washington D.C. to Southern California, and have participated in over fifty invitational, juried, and group exhibitions. Art for me is an integral part of the human experience and continues to be a place to be authentic, be truthful, and share hope, and the irony and blessings of life in all its beauty and mess.
My art website is: http://www.timtimmerman.com
Feel free to e-mail me at: abiggerworldyet@gmail.com
August 3, 2009 at 3:17 am
Tim,
How are you doing brother? I love the art blog! I have learned a lot about you from reading your history (it certainly explains a lot…lol). I look forward to the next time we get to staff together.
Jim
August 3, 2009 at 3:31 am
Hi Tim,
Nice statement and photo of you.
August 6, 2009 at 12:05 am
Hey Tim,
Great new site, I like your bio and I can see your life protrayed in your work.
take care
pat
August 25, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Didn’t know you had birds. And now a dog? At least that is what I hear.
Thanks for sharing your blog with me. I love it!
September 5, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hi Tim! I was an art dept worker for you at good old GCU back in 1995! I used to help you and Arlene grade, set up the exhibits, etc. You were a great work study boss. Just randomly thought I’d look up your name. Glad to see you are doing well
September 5, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Thanks for the note Karen! Good to hear from you!
September 29, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Hello Tim! I like your art blog. –Kerri B.
February 27, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Hey Tim
We met about Six years back when you were visiting friends in the Philly area.
Ive realy enjoyed youre blog of late since I discovered it a few weeks back. Having once been an artistic kid who was also drawing space ships, I admire those that have remained prolithic into there adult lives as you obviously have. Ive passed on articals you have posted to friends as modes for discussion.
I wonder if you have ever posted more about the community you live in, how it came together, etcetera…If you have could you direct me to those posts Ide realy like to hear of it if you have shared about it.
Regards,
Scott
March 5, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Hey Scott, thanks for your note and good to hear from you. I think my community I live in is much like any family that is working to be healthy and honest. It’s work. We have a men’s group that meets every other week now going on over five years, and whether married with children or celibate I think many of us are doing our best to walk along side one another in the nitty-gritty of it all and be a body of Christ. As things come up I’m sure I’ll post about it.- Blessings to you.
March 6, 2010 at 12:56 am
Sounds real good. A rare thing and a tough thing to establish. Love to hear more as you post about it. Thaks for your reply.
Peace
Scott
March 12, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Tim–I met you briefly while you were in Pullman and saw your work there. You had lots of mixed media pieces that were based on scriptures. I haven’t forgotten them. And, their memory prompted me to google you. Are you still doing work like that? Just wanted you to know that those pieces were unforgettable to me. Lisa
March 18, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Thanks for the note Lisa! You know I do still do work very much influenced and inspired by scripture. Some of the current watercolor/gouache/ink pieces that are on this blog and my website (timtimmerman.com), are very much influenced by the Psalms, a place I have very much found a refuge. Take care!
May 18, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Tim: You have joined the Academician Ranks! I’m impressed by your journey. You make an old man joyful.
Director of The Foreigner
May 19, 2010 at 3:43 pm
John! Wonderful to see you on this crazy thing. Hope you are well and happy. My experience with you has to be one of my favorite theatrical experiences I have ever had. Please keep in touch (and can I say I have a hard time thinking of you as old)!
January 13, 2011 at 5:53 am
Tim,
Your art and life web together so intricately. You are very complex and simply marvelous in your narrative world ; explained through your beautiful art. I admire and respect you very much.
My kind regards
susan