timotheories

It’s that time again friends!

I want to share something with you. Something special – Specifically to remind you that you don’t really need to shape the aesthetics of your art for anyone other than yourself. You know this already, but it’s always a good reminder when someone who is also making art gives you a hug and let’s you know that everything is going to be okay. That you can make it.

Besides, who doesn’t love a hug?

This theory is something you should always hold onto and know in your heart of hearts. Not the theory of hugs, though that’s super valid, but the theory that you should make art for yourself.

Having written that out, and now that I’ve given you a moment to reflect upon your own awesome skillfulness, I’m going to tell you a not so secret secret dear readers – Sometimes you can find a way to have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you can make art for the people and art for yourself.

You see, whether you make music for a living, perform in a theatre or make visual art it is completely legitimate to prepare separate bodies of work to keep yourself motivated and allow your mind to wonder from time to time. And let’s be honest, you know I’m willing to list a multitude of creative professions to make the point that art is not only for musicians, actors, and visual artists. But I won’t do that in the essence of time.

Art For The People

A couple of years after I finished university, I had this brilliant idea with my girlfriend at the time. No, not that idea. The idea was that I actually could make artwork that referenced where I came from and what I grew up with, and that fit inside a commercial ideal, without boring myself to tears.

You see creative cuties, there is this silly notion out there that you should paint (insert other appropriate art form) what you know. But as a white, CIS, sapiosexual, heterosexual male who grew up in a big city, but didn’t really follow the typical tropes of hockey, farming, construction or oil fields that are attached to that city, I didn’t really have much ground to work with. Well, at least that’s what I thought.

The thing is, it’s pretty easy to use your ethnic background, childhood, ideologies or any number of personal artefacts to inspire your art. And then it hit me. I know nothing about either of my parents small town upbringings, but much like looking through old family photos and having a sense of nostalgia for that which we never experienced, I could capture that through a series of photos about rural Alberta.

Sehnsucht Fernweh For Pseudokinds

Thus I began to produce a series of work that predominantly features trains – because bitches love trains. And while I do plan to expand the series outward to feature other farming implements and anchors like fields, grain elevators and the like, I’m a man of simple means sometimes, so patience is a virtue with me. You see friends, I have a pretty heavy German background, according to my most recent ancestors, though I suspect it’s a lot more diverse than that.

And yet, somehow that’s an easy identifier.

My goal with this series, as I mentioned, is to put work out there that offers some insight into my own feelings about my imagined sense of identity (a potentially heavy task for those who didn’t go through an academic ringer like I did). You see, though I have no real ties to this story I’m developing, I make work about it, because my chosen art form is a visual language and provides commentary on the subject. I can easily share and sell the work and feel no sense of less, and yet, as I continue to make it, it becomes more of a piece of my identity, much like participating in a family heritage assigns it a part of who you are.

The series is called Sehnsucht Fernweh For Pseudokinds, which loosely translates to “nostalgic longing” of “far off places you haven’t visited” of pseudo “kids.” All taken from the German language, a good reminder of where I’ve never been.

As mentioned already, I’ll continue to expand upon this series over time and share more works with you, but as always my creative cuties, I encourage you to make your own work, find ways to make that which makes you happy. Whether it has a conceptual framework or not.

Of course, one last bit of consideration, if you are interested in commissions, prices of the work I’ve included in today’s post, or if you want more information about the series, please leave some comments below or email me at timotheories@outlook.com.

And lastly, please follow the blog to get even more awesome content in the future. I’m out of theories for the week, please have an excellent weekend friends, and I’ll see you on Sunday with a preview of this months interview! It’ll be a fun one.

Tim!