Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starblog Timotheories. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

I love space. I seriously do!

Of course, I am probably talking moreso about the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction, AKA physical space. Yeah, this post is about that. Also how space works in visual art – you know, positive vs negative space? Open vs closed space? Shallow vs deep space? 2D vs 3D space? And here is another mindblower – sometimes space isn’t really there, and that’s called illusion folks. Or how about the use of areas that can be defined by edges, say on a canvas or a piece of paper?

Anyway, you get my point.

So to be infinitely clear, this post is not about space in relation to time, nor the concept of space in relation to astral bodies, also known as outer space. And if you think I could be writing about that 4 inch piece of plastic in the centre of your keyboard, you would also be mistaken. If this were a mathematics blog, we’d be thinking of dimensions as well, but there would be different structures to them, and besides its not a mathematics blog. Coming at it from a philosophical perspective,  there are questions about if space is its own entity, varying thoughts on space in terms of relationships, and my particular favourite – whether there exists a conceptual framework in existence and space fits into it somehow – Let’s put a pin in that last theory and come back to it later.

But it does give a whole new meaning to the expression – “give me some space,” doesn’t it? Next time someone says that to you, ask them what kind of space. For kicks, you know?

On a different, but related note, I moved into a new place about 2 months ago, dear readers. And with said new place, came all of the trappings of reorganizing my life into little boxes, figuring out what to keep, what to get rid of, and then setting it all up again. This new place is awesome, because I get to share it with my 2 brothers and my bro’s girlfriend! We are all creative types, so the house is being used effectively and it looks pretty good too. Right now I am focusing my own efforts on getting the studio space in the basement I have to myself to look a certain way and to start making some fucking art – Which I have been away from for far too long, and hence the strong language.

This is what the studio looked like last week.

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Not bad, but could be better in my opinion.

For any artist, visiting their studio space is a very intimate experience. And like being intimate in relationships, some artists may want to share that opportunity with a lot of people, while others may never allow a soul into their physical representation of thoughts, dreams, and the filtering process that makes its way into whatever vessel they so desire. Additionally, I think that looking into an artists space, you get a glimpse of their soul, to gain a better insight of what motivates them and why they care about the things that they choose to make art about.

Let me break it down a different way. I have just given the entire Internet a glimpse into my soul, people!

Moving along; I have this other belief that an artist’s space should be ever-evolving, and that it should function fluidly for that person. Whenever that is not the case, the artist has problems to contend with.

Thus, the exercise of sharing that photo with you is really sharing a candid moment in my life, and the next time I use that space, it should look different, but still provide me with the tools to articulate my vision. As soon as the studio becomes something that the artist doesn’t need, or to put it in other terms, that it doesn’t produce results that mean something, that space requires a major overhaul. Going back to the topic of philosophy and conceptual frameworks, if a studio space cannot be used to make conceptual distinctions (artworks) and organize ideas (space to store works, conduct research, experiment, et. al.)  then it is effectively a storage unit OR worse, a garbage dump. And that truly makes me sad when I think about it!

Fortunately, I am hoping to have an update soon with my progress on renovating the studio space, so you can see how I’ve shaped it up, and maybe I can even provide some insight on creative projects I have lined up in the very near future!

What do you think of creative spaces? Do you have one? How do you use it as a conceptual framework for your art?

And so, those are my theories for the day.

Tim!