1919 French postcards reconfigured

Angela Cazel Jahn"What Mankind Could" 2010

I was invited this Spring to create a piece for the Bush Barn Art Center down in Salem, specifically for an exhibit that opens up here in May called “Rock Paper Scissors.”  In the winter while down in Arizona I saw two painting/collage on glass pieces by Angela Cazel Jahn (http://www.cazeljahn.net/).  Very illustrative in nature I liked her use of patterns and the playful character of her work. Moreover, in teaching Mixed Media this semester, I thought this would be a fun assignment for the students, and in the process of creating a couple pieces myself that integrated collage and painting, I would have some work that fit into the parameters of the “Rock Paper Scissors” show for Bush Barn here in May.

I had old postcards I had gotten in St Mere Eglise, France two years ago, as well as some old mining certificates, letters, and Berean Bible cards from the early 20th century. I decided to use these as the basis of my collage.  Here are images of the two works in progress:

Here with the piece "Company," the collage part done, I'm now figuring out the location of the other elements I'm going to be painting in the composition.

Here I am working on "The Steadfast." I'm building a figure in the piece out of a colored paper and various postcards.

The collage part of "The Steadfast" done, I'm now figuring out the location of what will be the painted elements.

 

A Revised Street Where You Live

"On The Street Where You Live" Tim Timmerman, oil on wood and assemblage, 22"x22"4" 2010

An image showing you light behind the rods that shows you their variety of colors.

On October 4th I put up a post regarding this piece.  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to take a good photo of it.  Here’s a better one than the first.

This work was created in collaboration with a local show that dealt with rendering trees in our fair little town.  The tree at the top of the image is based on a loopy old tree a block down the street from me that I walk by almost daily.  The image on the left is actually a graph of my street, the glass rods indicate the placement of the trees (there are actually three different colors of rods, each depending on the size of the tree).  My house is second to the bottom on the left in the graph.  I own a scotty dog, that does like to bark at the local squirrels, referenced by the assemblage on the right.  And yes, like any neighborhood worth its salt,  kids like to play on and around the street as found in the central sewn image that I adjusted for my use.

Go say “hi” to your neighbors….

 

Put Together at the Minthorne Art Gallery

You know you gotta love it when an artist takes the ordinary and makes the extraordinary.

I have the privilege of running the Minthorne Art Gallery at George Fox, and this next month have curated a show featuring two assemblage artists, Chris Giffin and Kay Worthington.  They both make exceptionally playful work that are inventive and a delight.  I encourage you to drop by and see the show if you have a chance.  It’s a blast.

Oregon Art Beat featured Chris recently in one of their television segments.   Take the time to watch the video on line at the link below. It’s a lot of fun to see her studio and working practice: http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/segments/view/856

Why I bet you’re going to want to go nail or glue something together after all of this!

 

Millions of Bits and Pieces

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

 

Brother’s Keeper

"Brother's Keeper" detail

I have been working as of late to finish three shadow boxes.  One of which will be used as the book cover for a book that I have been writing for over the past four years (there I said it).  Below “Brother’s Keeper” is the first I’d like to show you.

I was struck with some irony that today at church our pastor Gregg spoke on the scripture from Genesis 3 that this title can trace its origins to.  In addition, yesterday I was at the Portland Art Museum with two alumni of the art department at George Fox and we were looking at R. Crumb’s illumination of the book of Genesis http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/feature/The-Bible-Illuminated-R-Crumbs-Book-of-Genesis.  One of the panels I did read of the numerous pages on the wall was his interpretation of this verse where Cain killed Able.   Lots of parallels as of late it seems.

It’s interesting the process that went into this piece.  I intended all along for the glass figure with the flame head to be the main figure (from an earlier post) in the work, only to switch it on the last day with a small plaster replica of the  Lion of Lucerne statue (found in Switzerland).  It worked much better for the composition, and was much easier to read visually.  Hope you like the piece.

"Brother's Keeper" Tim Timmerman; oil on wood, glass, wood, plaster and metal figures, assemblage, 24"x12"x8", August 2010

"Brother's Keeper" Tim Timmerman, side view (box dimensions 13"x9 1/2"x8")

"Brother's Keeper" detail - recognize that painting from an earlier post? I like the little blessing hand. That is courtesy a wonderful Catholic shop in Belgium. They sold me broken parts of statues; is that wonderful or what?

 

Shadow Boxes in Process

I’ve been working on a series of three shadow boxes that I’ll show the completed versions of you shortly.  I thought you may enjoy seeing a bit of the process of the work.

For one of the boxes i wanted to have a starry sky in the back. Since the box was about boyhood/masculine identity I chose to drill holes in the wood and use marbles as the "stars" per-say. That way if there is light behind the work the marbles will glow. At the top of the picture is the silhouette cut out of the landscape and houses that is part of the same piece as well. The dalle de verre scraps of glass I ended up using in the same piece.

For one of the boxes I needed an image of Phoenix Arizona at night, so I did a little oil painting for it.

For the box that has the sky of marbles I in addition needed a moon. Staying on the "boyhood" theme of the piece I used a baseball of my grandfathers and used William Wirt (an Attorney General from the 1800's that I'm a fan of) as my inspiration for the face.

I had this wonderful idea to create a tree for one of the shadow boxes that ended up being an abysmal failure. When completed I thought it came across as "scary," not the feeling I wanted to get across in the piece. We'll see if it shows up somewhere else.

 

Stay

"Stay" Tim Timmerman, oil on wooden panel / reclaimed wood / cast bronze / found objects (windmill toy, church); 20”x28”x4”; 5/10,

Well, I just took down my work from the “Assembled” show at the Bush Barn in Salem.  Everyone is now safely back here at home.

For whatever reason I have a very special relationship with this particular piece that was in the show, and I’m not quite sure why.  The bronze dog in it was cast a couple of years ago three times, and this is the last version of it I have.  It seemed appropriate to have him be my central living character in the piece.  It does seem like in this work there is a nod to the regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, and perhaps my mom’s Kansas roots are showing up in this one.  She was a woman who adored windmills.  When negotiating a title for this work I was thinking of my dog, now a year old and the standard phrase that perhaps even God has been communicating to me as of late.

Hope you be good-  Tim

"Stay" detail of the church, painting and reseviour

"Stay" detail of the bronze dog and windmill. Sorry that it's a bit burry- must photograph this again.

 

The intriuging work of Hilary White

Hilary White, "Rein, Rain, Reign" mixed media with rotating motor 49″ x 23.5″ 2008

I ran onto a very interesting artist while in Philadelphia.  I didn’t encounter her work in an art gallery, but she was my waitress at a delightful restaurant in old town. Funny how things work out that way eh?

Her work is a great combination of symbolism, contemporary asthetics, graphic design, and faith.  A wonderful combination indeed.  Check out her work at:  http://hilarywhiteart.com

Hilary White, "Give Into, Given To" mixed media with light 71″ x 40″ 2007

 

Leave of Absence

Leave of Absence , Tim Timmerman, oil on wooden panel / reclaimed wood / pate de verre / kiln worked glass / ceramic; 37”x23 ½”x10”; 5/10

Here is another work that is currently featured in the exhibition down at Bush Barn in Salem that is up till the end of the month.  The images that I based the painting on are from an area on the Oregon Coast south of Devil’s Punchbowl.  You may recognize this little boat as well as their is a post about me making it last summer.  I had a nice time combining elements of glass, ceramic, assemblage, and painting in this work.

Leave of Absence detail of pate de' verre boat and lower portion of the work.

 

Reddenda est Terra Terrae

"Reddenda est Terra Terrae," Tim Timmerman, oil on wooden panel / reclaimed wood / pate de verre / aluminum / gold leaf / casting resin / wax medium / cedar needles; 31 ½”x17 ¼”x9”; 4/10,

Right after college I got a t-shirt that had that Latin saying on it.  If I recall correctly it means “what comes from the earth must go back to it.”  When I was working on the concept of this piece and contemplating a title I felt that “Reddenda est Terra Terrae” was very appropriate.

When working on the painting in the work I wanted the hills (based on images I took of sunset in Eastern Oregon in the fall), to echo the form of the body that I did in pate de’ verre.  The sides of the work is cedar needles (collected from Champoeg state park here in Oregon) that I then covered in casting resin, sanded, and then finshed with a wax.

This piece is currently in the “Assembled” exhibition up at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem.

•Reddenda est Terra Terrae, detail of the pate de' verre figure.