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 (18)
helanker
A very beautiful Image and exiting too. I wish my little printer could take other than printer paper :-)
blankfrancine
Very emotional work, a psychic storm? Impressive technique as well!
goido
Great artwork as usual and congratulations on your award!
rudiruth
great!
Fidelity2
Splendid. 5+.
mss
This is a nice Triptych format! Very rich and beautiful colors! Wish I could feel the heft of the paper. And I wish I could go to your workshop... Illinois is too far away though! Congratulations for your "Best In Show"!
november22
Sorry for lack of info: Printer was an Epson 7880Pro a 24" printer, so the 16" half sheet was no problem. And yes, I will get the canon printer. HooRah! thanks all.
vintorix
Welcome back. Congratulation to the Best in Show Award in Booksmart International Printing Exhibition 2009! Does that mean that you have won a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5100 at $2500? 15" x 22" (375 x 550 cm) image on Aquerello 550 gsm paper you must have used the Canon? (capable printing ISO A2 format 420 x594 cm). I notice in all your last printings that you have returned to the not 100% abstract formula that you used before - I applaud that move. Anyway today’s picture is very beautiful; it was worth the long wait. Edit: Epson 7880 ok. But when you get the Canon you will probably be the only private person to own one! "Also I've stopped working in editions..." It took a while to sink in. You mean you do only one unique exemplar, not anymore limited editions.. haha good, then you get away from idiotic discussions over what is a orginal or not. The orginal is what the artists say it is of course. With only one postworked copy - end of discussion.
anaber
I look "Around Midnight" and i see a large thunderstorm day,or perhaps the thunderstorm lit the night. To me, your triptych is an "input",an "inside/outside": like a window, from where we observe the emotions...however, if she is outside she covers us from head to feet! This one is very beautiful and different from the others,by the way as you played with the colours and textures.And this is a great work as always. My best whishes for your work shop and my congratulations for your Best In Show, and very glad to see you as always!
Burpee
Wow, congrats Tim. That page does load very slowly but your 'best in show' is the first to load. Great job. I've printed on watercolor paper (normal weights) and it works great but the digital grounds makes it warp a bit. I would guess that the heavier grade would make it easier with less warp. I did one the other day on canvas paper, coated wtih digital groun, and it came out beautifully. I looked at larger printers today and Office Max has the big Epson with CMYK colors for $179 ($120 off the regular price). I'd love to grab it but it's still a U printer, not flatbed. Also, the inks would cost $126 to supply each time...egads. If it had a scanner and copier I would have grabbed it. I just don't have room for a 2nd printer and I won't give up my 'all-in-one' capabilities.
ekatz
so much energy in this, great work
2Loose2Trek
Very cool work Tim.
jocko500
I missed this one here. wonderful work and hope your workshop going good
ARTWITHIN
I'm finally making my way back into the galleries, and I'm wonderously happy about your 'Best in Show', Tim. You really deserve it for all your hard work, which is second to you beautiful creative mind. "About Midnight" is miraculous to me. I love night. I see clearly in the night, and yet here you present what is seen in daylight and is hidden under the blanket of darkness. The storm provides the light that shows everything is the same at night as it is in the day. Only our perceptions change because of the inadequacy of the physical eye, as miraculous and purposeful as that is. Still, I would not change the darkness of the night, expecially when the moon shines. It is another side of the same beauty. It is the same for us. We can feel as if we are in darkness, and this is just an inadequacy of the mind. In reality, light is at work within us to take us higher on the ascent to the perfection of beauty and love. Your image is one that assures us of the beauty and love that exists at all times, in all conditions, and with full effect in our lives. Thank you, Tim, for a truly inspiring work of art.
Ken _Gilliland
Nicely done. Interesting work and style
anahata.c
I'll check out your link soon, and from what I read above, you got best in show? Well congratulations if it's so, but to me you're best in show always, and I don't know how the world at large hasn't figured that out yet. Parts of this are smooth even slightly blurred, giving a sense of a half-focussed night vision. Parts are sharp as glass and very vividly linear and curvilinear. And you weave the two together well. Over all it feels like a night scene illumined by physical lightning, or the lightning of the mind; and it's stunning and has the feel of a lit-up moment. And of course once that happens, it reveals all your organic growth and peering and pattern, etc. I love the bands of violet here too, and the ground is splendid Tim organic stuff, the inner process you explore in much of your art. There's a feeling of energy bursting out there, like it's been so pent up that your lightning bolt gave it permission to come out and do its dance. Splendid, all 'Tim', and it reminds me that though you create abstraction, you have an implicit adoration for nature itself; and you bring out the electricities and patterns inside it everytime you portray it in one of your images. Beautiful.
Campo-Diaz
Awesome work.
tetsu-pino
Great work as always!! and Congratulations for your "Best In Show"