I have been an artist in photography, video art & performance art, and since 1994 in printmaking showing in regional, national and international exhibits. My work of the last few years has involved the exploration of photography and printmaking as a hybrid medium of expression. The work isn't contained within a genre, although landscape and still life studies dominate, but shows concern with texture, the hand manipulation of the image and surface.Â
  For me photography is another way to create images. My Dad gave me a 35 mm camera when I was 11, as I was constantly 'borrowing' his whenever I could get my hands on it; when I was 13 I entered my first photography contest.
  Later all through Viet Nam and four years in the military I carried a camera - both as a way of interpreting what was happening to me and those around me, and to distance myself from it.
  I exhibited photography off and on until I began a career in cinematography and video in the late seventies and received a Master of Art in 1979 from the University of Missouri-KC. I taught mediated communications at Haskell Indian Nations University and later at Northern Illinois University. By 1986, bored with documentaries and commercial video production and seeking to return to the single image, I started a graduate program in studio art, while keeping my day job of producing educational programs in the arts. I found myself taking addition course-work in photography and worked with traditional printmakers in documenting their workshops and classes.
  Upon gaining my MFA, I a took a course in printmaking, and it was a zen moment in the studio: working the plates, inking, pulling prints. A wholly different tradition of the single image, a completely new toolset for me drew me. This was in 1992, and led to 18 hours of post-grad work with intaglio and relief techniques and many more hours with David Driesbach of Miracle Press who for years was the finest example of a person and an artist I'm sure I will ever know; for over a decade he invited me in to document the activities of Miracle Press and the yearly week long master printmaking sessions - his humor and technical skill shows me the way still.
  In 2002 I picked up a digital camera, mostly to record textures I found in wood, stone, mud, and textiles as references in printmaking, and I started thinking immediately about photography from the point of view of a printmaker.
  So I feel that I finally understand enough about the images that I respond to, and most importantly about the images I need to make, to take the journey as photographer and printmaker. Artistic life is full circle, I'm back to that happy kid seeing things truly for the first time in the view finder and the mind's eye, revealed on the plate and paper.
www.timburns-art.com for other work and background information; this functions as an on-line portfolio for me.
tim
Comments (19)
helanker
Her you can really see the layers. Looks really excellent.
rl2000
like the harmonious colours and beautiful textures!
ARTWITHIN
This is stunning, and so mystical in appearance. I could look at this for hours and a lifetime of experience, knowledge and understanding would flow peacefully behind my eyes. This is my favorite of the series, I think. However, it is hard for me to chose. Thank you, Tim, for this wonderful journey through Visual Traces of Meditation.
ArtPearl
I like this very much. Great color and dynamic patterns
vintorix
Nice print. Refreshing with yellow. For some reason that color isn't very much used.
Fidelity2
Super cool. 5+.
mss
Very restful. I agree that I could look at this for hours exploring the many layers of nuances...
anaber
Very interesting and deep and so hard...because i don´t find the right words!-"But i never shut my mouth"... :))- and i feel so many things about:It´s like i were in the "cosmus" of my consciousness,with so much luminosity and colour, that i cannot see where the light begins. And to return to real world i must go through the empty spaces between the "benches" and "fly" over them and if it was possible,it will be a difficult and big voyage,full of feellings and thoughts.This is a mysterious dream and a SUPERB masterpiece for the "Meditation´s". (BTW: i only tell you what i feel about,because i think you need more to know the feelings about your work in this case,than if you did well..but i also think you did.It´s Great)
e-brink
Wonderful colour palette and textures.
Marinette
Excellent artwork!:):)
kasalin
Beautiful and warm colours and excellent textures !!! Great artwork, dear Tim :)5*
anahata.c
there's a sense of mysterious beings lurking in here, and the title has great resonations...again I love ana's comment, and of course suzanne's are always attuned to the ecstasy...but ana speaks of being inside her own consciousness in this painting, and it feels that way to me too. I have to say, this feels like a beginning of a new phase as well, because you're doing imagery that suggests deeds (your title) and coagulated emotions, and there's even a surreal quality to it. I realize I'm seeing a less than perfect compressed version, so take my observations with that in mind...But that big yellow plane—which dominates the piece—feels like a structured part of consciousness, it could be one of our deeds, a full memory, etc; yet it's dissolving and being overtaken by energies & hues around it. It might suggest something from the 'normal' plane being dissolved by something deeper. (Deeds being dissolved by memory, etc.) Your title reminds me of a very impressionistic, haunting Russian film called "Shadows of Forgotten Ancesters" (dir., Paradjanov), and also of Proust's masterpiece, "Search for Lost Time" (more commonly, "Remembrance of Things Past"), where he spends 7 volumes simply remembering; the most famous passage being him eating a pastry (a madeleine) and suddenly realizing the whole of his memory is brought back by a single bite: Somehow it seems related to this; this could be a visual evocation of that 'search'. What does it have to do with meditation? It's what you see much of the time in meditation—until you reach deep clarity. You see memory, deeds, fear, conflict, people, you hear events, everything everything flitting past and speaking to you, coming at you in cinematic snippets. And that's what this feels like in some ways. But what's behind it all? Llight and stillness—which seems to lurk behind all these images (and a number of your others as well). Well, at that precipice, I'll shut up. (LOL, Ana: "But I never shut my mouth": Ana, move over: You've met your match! My mouth is definitely bigger than yours!) Wonderful series Tim. This is peak work you're doing. Masterful.
groegnitram
writing something behind mark isnt easy, really! one family visit later and with an empty fridge i come back to my normal state, slowly. looking at such wonderful work is a good help for sure and puts me back to the strange place enjoy to live so much. thanks a lot for sharing your work here!
beatoangelico
fantastic 2D..superb textur...Bravissimo..!!!
jocko500
super looking. hope your show goes good. the framing cost so much lol
SecondChoice
wish You happy easter days!
Burpee
Great ending to the series. SO much depth to your work.
gomboy
this is a really really interesting approach. can't get this kinda thing on digital! great texture and colors!
Chipka
In William Gibson's first wholly non-Science Fiction novel, Pattern Recognition there is a strange phenomenon occurring on the internet, involving anonymous posts of...cryptic, complex images. This reminds me of one of those images, though the medium is clearly different. I love the colors, the abstract quality, and the whole manner in which it plays with perception. There is an aged and ancient quality to this as well, and it reminds me of something a digital archaeologist may discover in some strange future in which "datamining" phase shifts from spy-end work to something completely "real world" I don't know why it strikes me this way, but I like that association, the way it does truly resemble something that exists in that membrane between the digital and the analog. The colors, the mood, the visual texture, and the overall layered effect is brilliant. I love this.