Tim Timmerman's Blog

The Quiet Service and Wonder of Tim Lowly

abiggerworldyet — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:10:28 +0000

Tim Lowly painting his tondos in the summer of 2010.

I had the privilege of being introduced to Tim Lowly’s work when I was ripe out of undergraduate. CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) (http://civa.org/) had their bi-annual conference at Biola in Los Angeles where I just was released from, so I attended. I think I saw his work in a late night slide show, and was struck by its sincerity and tenderness. I also had become a fan of George Tooker in undergraduate and felt Tim must have had a similar kinship.

I thought it was about time I introduce you to his work here. He is faithful to update his website and flicker blog, so there is always new projects to see.

I like the humanity of his work as he follows the life of his disabled daughter, his wife, parents, community, and the like. There is a wonder he evokes in his detailed renditions of a muddy pool of water, an old home, or capturing a fleeting glance. Lowly’s paintings posses a gentleness and wisdom that seems rare in this day-and-age.

Take some time to enjoy his work: http://www.timlowly.com/

A large image of Tim Lowly’s disabled daughter. As I recall this was called “Temma on Earth”

“New and Improved!” (and an excuse to post a cute picture)

abiggerworldyet — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:44:03 +0000

Yes, after three years there has been a change. I’ve revamped my website and it’s now in a format that I’ll be making updates and adding new art to it regularly. Some new things I threw in there are views of the work in shows, and also images of art in process and the studio. Check it out: http://timtimmerman.com/

My niece is saying to you, “Hey, lookie at my uncle’s website because he makes stuff.” Well, maybe that’s what she’s saying, when she was this age unless you were her mother it was anyone’s guess.

Still Life with Lion…

abiggerworldyet — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:25:33 +0000

Perhaps you have a wild animal behind a potted plant in your home, and you just don’t know it.

So I liked the little sketch I just posted so much I did a digital version of this little lion hiding. I didn’t have the original with me when I created the electronic image. I find it interesting to see how I edited and changed it based on what I recalled from the first one, as well as what I found visually worked. No bottles in this one, but there are tools and rope.

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #10: Scarcity vs Abundance

abiggerworldyet — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:39:55 +0000

So some dear friends invited me to a self-help weekend. It was very lecture heavy, uncomfortably in a hotel conference, and was, well, I would say “tricky,” but there was some good principles that they reminded me of. The man droned on with books and CDs you could purchase staring back at you from the table behind him.

My comfort was my sketchbook, so I took notes in the hours we sat, and also embraced it as a time to sketch. Here is one of the sketches I did admits the flurry of notes. Maybe you’ll find something of interest.

Perhaps I was drawing a lion quietly sitting behind a plant and series of objects, because I felt like I was holding back and just patiently waiting for our time to end. This was drawn on Sunday, which was the last day of the event. Drawing was a way of drumming my fingers on a table…..

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #9: Figures in Austria

abiggerworldyet — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 04:26:17 +0000

A number of these images were drawn in Austria. I found it curious that some images of Saints played with scale. Thus a saint could be holding a whole church in his hand, or I played with the idea that a figure could have a whole panoply of animals in their arms.

In Spitz Austria we went to a delightful ship building museum, the upper right is an image of hanging boat that I drew there. Also here you see various thoughts from scripture to a name of cartoonist we saw in Krems, and a head with budding plants. It all lands in the sketchbook.

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #8: St Christopher

abiggerworldyet — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:06:23 +0000

More from Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany, a delightful city on the romantic road. For many students of mine this wonderfully preserved city was their favorite during our travels. It was in many ways what I think we Americans hope Europe is like.

The left figure is from the Imperial Museum, but was a carved statue taken from St. Jacob’s Church where we went to a concert later that evening. While there I drew the statue of St. Christopher that was near us. We kept running into his image throughout our trip, and couldn’t help thinking he was looking over our trip, making sure we were getting along well.

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #7: Imperial City Museum

abiggerworldyet — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:58:08 +0000

Ah the sketches continue. Now we are in May of 2012, and welcome to Europe. Here is a sketch from the Imperial City Museum in Rothenburg, a delightful city on the romantic road in Germany.

I fell in love with this little museum and just had a delightful time drawing all the interesting artifacts that were there. You’d be amazed as to how many arrow tips there are in the world.

And More John Bennett Photos

abiggerworldyet — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:47:39 +0000

A multiple image John Bennett portrait here. Why it was if something was happening out the window and I was responding to what I was seeing. Well, and drinking my water.

Ah- our photography teacher John Bennett continues to take out his I-Phone and shoot odd images of me when we are out and about. Often at eating establishments. Here are some curious recent iterations.

This image is actually taken in the same restaurant as the image above. Little did I know what John was up to. Those are wooden medallions on the wall behind me.

This was photographed on the coast at a pizza joint. It was important for John to get the “Heater Timer” in there….

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #6: Quagga

abiggerworldyet — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:43:12 +0000

Continuing to work on figures that I would like to construct and then do paintings of the actual sculptures, one thought has been to do a series of images based on animals that have now gone extinct. Below is an idea of using the passenger pigeon as inspiration, as well as the quagga.

The quagga is an African animal that went extinct in the 1800′s. I like the idea of using them for inspiration as they are not a horse, they are not a zebra, they are a quagga! I think we feel safer pigeon-holing people with terms and labels because it makes us feel secure, rather than being at ease with the sheer diversity and variation of folks that our God and this world manifests. In our “global” and “western-centric” world I have to wonder who we’re loosing in the process.

The Knoxville-Rothenburg Sketchbook #5: Another Meeting

abiggerworldyet — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:36:30 +0000

When you work at a University, you get use to meetings, lectures, and the like. I keep my sketchbook handy (whether the I-Pad or the hard copy one). Here is what I came up with at our end of the year meeting in 2011.

Paperwork, people, beverages and snacks dominate the image, with my shoe poking in at the bottom of the page. I can’t remember what we discussed, but this isn’t a bad little sketch that I got out of it.