Lisa Jones | timotheories

Innovation Is A Work Of Art (Lisa Jones interview, Innovation)

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Innovation is difficult.

It forces you to stretch yourself and expose yourself in ways that you never expected to. You make sacrifices too, which can feel like hot wax on bare skin. Painful, but that initial commitment makes the overall process less painful. Unless of course you delay. Then the wax cools and the hair pull hurts more than the first wax application.

Whether a fast or slow decision, you eventually do have to pull the hairs out… but the aesthetic benefit soon becomes apparent. You see, those hairs can grow, but it is only with focus and determination that we can shape them into a beautiful set of eyebrows, a glowing beard, or even with clean shaven legs.

Only then can we become a work of art.

This might seem like kind of a weird example to lead into this month’s AMAZING interview, and an amazing interview it is, but I promise the metaphor will make sense shortly. You see dear readers, true innovation doesn’t come from no where.

Even if a statement like “… [is] a work of art” sweeps the Twitterverse on a particular day or over the course of a week (April 15, 2016), someone spent the time crafting a public persona and was able to authenticate that statement and help make it noteworthy for millions. The masses are fickle, but the artist can be committed to innovation.

Yeah that “… [is] a work of art” actually did became a popular thing to tweet for a bit there. Whether I decide to make a great metaphor for growth and the beauty of humanity.

But, as I mentioned already, it’s not true innovation. And a work of art is steeped in more than just hair pull metaphors that suggest people’s bodies can simply be works of art on their own. Or can art do that?

Can art build off of what already exists, and cause self-reflection? Or better yet, cultural shifts?

That’s where episode 8 of timotheories interviews comes in.

Lisa Jones is a visual artist with abilities to rival the best of them – painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. But she prefers to specializes in painting with oils. And she makes images through her own personal metaphors, both refining and simultaneously obliterating narratives and materials at the same.

She recognizes that becoming an artist and maintaining a practice requires a combination of effort, innovation through necessity, and building a future for herself that doesn’t include regular visits to the local watering hole.

But you should take a look at the interview for yourself, because it’s literally just below you. It’s my most innovative interview yet. I promise.

And as always, if you want to check out more timotheories interviews or the Cross Talk series please visit our YouTube channel. And please, please, please leave some comments and of course subscribe to both the blog and channel!

Please also check out Lisa’s website to see her portfolio and to contact her for her creative services.

And of course my sincerest thanks to Lisa for being lively, likeable, and legitimately lovely. See you tomorrow with a hymn worthy music review.

Tim!

A Short, Impromptu, Review (timotheories April 2016)

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Hey there, dear readers! It’s update time! It’s update time.

Come on in, sit down in your favourite chair with a hot beverage, and get super excited along with me… as I will be revealing my calendar of posts this month so you can set your own agendas and tune in at 9 PM MST in anticipation of the publish dates.

*Disclaimer* As always, every week I purchase an album and movie one week ahead of the actual review release so if you follow me on instagram (@timotheories) you can see what’s coming.

I’ve decided to change things ever so slightly this time around and slot in the music and movie reviews as well, as long as I can acquire said hard copies in advance of the release. If I cannot, don’t be disappointed, I’ll find something equally as entertaining for you.

Read? Let’s dig right in and go over the April entries you can expect to see on timotheories, I’ve even included this week for easy recall later on –

Stimulating Sundays – (04/03) How enviornment effects creativity, (04/10) artist statements, (04/17) Cross Talk Ep.4, (04/24) Lisa Jones interview
Melodic Mondays – (04/04) Amon Amarth, (04/11) Weezer, (04/18) The Lumineers (04/25) M83
Theatrical Tuesdays – (04/05) The Hateful Eight, (04/12) Star Wars VII, (04/19) The Dark Knight Returns w/graphic novel (04/26) The Revenant
Wisdom Wednesdays – (04/06) the secret to apathy, (04/13) Twitter, (04/20) Buzzfeed, (04/27) dealing with burnout
Timely Thursday – (04/07) April 2016 review, (04/14) National Poetry month, (04/21) Earth Day, (04/28) flea markets

The year of all killer, no filler continues friends! That’s right, we’ve got some great theories to go over, lots of events to cover, a wicked cool interview with a visual artist, and Episode 4 of Cross Talk. Hint, it’s about film adaptations, and promises to be an awesome topic.

When you think of film adaptations, more often than not books come to mind, followed by television shows, and then video games, right? But we’re not just going to be covering examples of when those can work and when they fail, we are also going to discuss how peoples expectations can be unrealistic when it comes to how adaptations compare versus the source material.

Wheels turning yet? Good.

Now let’s talk more detail on the April timotheories interview. This month should be even better than previous entries, because we upped the visual quality of the lighting to accommodate this artist. She’s a painter with drive to innovate and change the world, one step at a time. But you’ll have to tune in to see what I’m writing about.

And now we’ve covered it all, my friends. You can rest easy knowing the quality of timotheories continues to support the community surrounding the arts, giving you a voice and information to pursue your passions. I’m about spent now, so I’ll leave you with these theories and see you again on Sunday to talk about artist statements.

Of course please leave some comments, to let us know what you want to see in coming months and subscribe to the blog too!

Tim!

I Am an Art-bitch (Latitude 53)

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

I’ve written about the band CSS once already in recent months, as an opener to a Melodic Monday entry on Grimes, in fact. But because this is a music reference, I’m okay to play like a broken record and write about this week’s Timely Thursday entry on timotheories with a repetitive start.

Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) is a rock group from São Paulo, Brazil. The band came together in 2003, which was the year I entered into university for my undergrad BFA in art and design. For the next few years, I became accustomed to their new rave sound. This is back when there was a bar called HALO in the downtown core of Edmonton.

A long time ago, in an Edmonton far, far away, for you younger readers.

Anyways, CSS had this great little ditty called Art-bitch (chorus to follow), and when my graduating class was putting together their final submissions to the exhibition and supplemental catalogue, I witnessed several lyrics come together in the titles of some of my friends final pieces. Titles like Art-bitch, Art-lick, and Art-hole.

Lick lick lick my art-tit
Lick lick lick my art-tit
Suck suck suck my art-hole
Suck suck suck my art-hole

I ain’t no art-ist
I am an art-bitch
I sell my panties to the men i eat
I have no port-fo-lee-o
Cuz i only show
Where there’s free al-co-hol

This is significant because a band like CSS represents an aesthetic gone by, and fashion is often closely associated with visual arts. For instance, new rave took elements from both new wave and rave to produce a fashion look (and sound) that incorporates fluorescent clothing, and similar visual accessories, ie glowsticks. It even had a shelf life, much like fashion, because by the time it got really popular in mid-2008 it kinda just died right then and there. The use of synthetic music combined with apathy and anarchism made it perfect for artists to capitalize on.

And this is totally applicable to the memories I associate with a key group of friends at that time, many of whom continued on their art journey almost immediately after university and are now making waves all over the world, but in totally different ways then they did a decade ago, kinda.

One of those friends now works at Latitude 53, the same one who organizes Manhunt-Edmonton.

Incidentally, I went to see an art opening at his invitation back in January. It was for students of the UofA at Latitude 53 and called Bridging Encounters. This is where I heard Grimes new album blasting away, that’s right, Art Angels was playing in the background. Yes! I thought, this means that the revolving aesthetic is still alive and well.

Which is why I’ve spent all this back story building up to an event that is happening this saturday and which I’m pretty excited about. Latitude regularly hosts exhibitions of two kinds. In their main space artists and curators can submit proposals twice a year, which are reviewed and then selected by a board. A second option exists in the ProjEX Room, where artists and groups can submit work that is midway through it’s process; allowing the audience to contribute in the research and development.

That’s where the exhibition, The Menagerie, comes in. Edmonton visual artist Lisa Jones will be hosting an artist talk on her work this Saturday at 2PM at Latitude 53.

It’s exciting because she is a painter, who is exploring aspects of her physical self and identity through an analogy of the circus! It promises to be a good one! The Facebook event is here, and the Latitude 53 link is here. Address is 10242 106 St NW.

What do you think dear readers? Any fond memories of your art past? Any triggers? Please leave some comments and of course subscribe if you haven’t already to say updated on timely events in my journey and local events!

Tim!