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 (8)
MOSKETON
FANTASTICA CREACION.
blankfrancine
Welcome back,Tim. An amazing creation.
anaber
OMG!!!Glad to see you Tim:)))Dead???HAHAHA !!!You may be darn busy or something else...but more alive than ever!:Just look at this image!!!And i read the description of the technique you used...and OK!OK! Thank you ...But i hardly understand all your maneuvers...LOL:))But i can tell you that this is wonderful!I am "in love" with peace of the face that you melded so well with the colours and the shapes all around...and i feel the golden thought that is blooming surrounded by the peaceful atmosphere of autumn. And in the left, i see an entrance...perhaps to another dimension or another stage of the thought.This is a great work of art.Thank you very much.
2Loose2Trek
It would appear that you've put many golden thoughts into this superb creation ... well done Tim. Have ya made the move to NM yet? :-)
myrrhluz
A beautiful work of art! The calm faces and muted colors are very restful, but the complexity is very stimulating. Wonderful combination.
helanker
What a wonderful Peace of art, Tim. THis looks so interesting and there are so many details to enjoy. Excellent. Welcome back.
tennesseecowgirl
Wonderful work. and good to see you back.
anahata.c
I've just returned to RR & to your gallery after some time. It's late now, so I'll comment on this vision now & return after a day or so. I see you've done much with the Buddha--these looking as Indian as Oriental (there are Oriental features in the eyes, but they could be Indian as well). I can see that this, like several other of your works, must be seen in person, as the jpg & photographic mediums can't fully capture your highly detailed & texturally opulent work. You've got a central buddha surrounded by dreams of the statuary & ornament that often surround buddhas in the east: the floral carving, the tracery, the gate or latticed stone-walls, etc, combined with undulating lines that give the vision the appearance of a surface of a great ocean. And you've melded hues in complex ways, nature hues (greens & earthen browns), the bland grays of stone, the blues greens & yellows of nature and decay, and the gold of the central buddha--who may be the thought of someone else, or may be the one actually thinking. (The dichotomy is perfect for buddhism.) And your ever "in process" frame--as if we were viewing a canvas with freshly applied gesso where the edges are not yet covered. You always have great life in your borders: This border is almost smoke or mist, reminiscent of the free spilling borders of the old darkroom shots. A bit of a "noisy meditation," but also a sense of the oneness of penetrative-mind piercing through the morass--hard to say how or where, but we feel that one-mind from the start. And, in its cacophony--which I assume is indigenous to the East where these things are found--you create a strange sense of equilibrium & peace. Always uncovering inner realities & always organic, a pleasure to visit here once more. Hope your holiday & Solstice are warm & inspired Tim. I'll visit again soon.