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 (9)
M2A
Technique sounds artistic, result is nice. Title is well chosen too.
helanker
A very beautiful peace and I like the title too.
2Loose2Trek
Beautifully inspired work Tim. These days, who wouldn't look away. LOL Well done!
anaber
Superb technique!! Your image breathes tranquility, induces feelings of inner peace, similar to the ecstasy of meditation! your figures have an air of calm and seems strangely sleeping or perhaps "abandoned" in the time. Fabulous shades of red-blood that involve them, significant to me of something mythical. The textures where they are resting are stunning and assume a protective function, as if they could keep them in ecstasy forever. The male face, has to me a different meaning ...seems do not belong to the scene,in the same way, but as a protective guardian of that magical atmosphere. Very attractive and a challenge to the mind. Great One, Tim! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN :-)))))))))Cheers!! ............. BTW: Thank you for your words in "nudity"-a state of soul-you are absolutely right ... my drawings are not clothed or unclothed. The drawings are structured in order to develop and show feelings and/or concepts. In this case, the title "helped" the objective. ...It is curious,that the visitors of an image protected by nudity have been increased so significantly ... what also, really, made part of my purpose in the developing of the concept i wanted to... and in no way related to the image itself, similar to so many others. thank you again,Tim,for your point of view, wich make me very happy and proud. About clay:LOL:-))I die to see and i hope you upload it,Tim!!! Cheers.ana~
myrrhluz
Wonderful image and title! There is a serenity to the two faces on the right. I have a harder time fixing an emotion to the face on the left. When coupled with the title, the expressions take on a complacent air. Perhaps the individuals have found peace but divorced themselves from the suffering of others in the process.
nikolais
excellent work, Tim! very creative
elisheba
wonderful...makes me think of a NIN song :)
Alex_Antonov
Wow!
anahata.c
coming back to your buddha themes...I definitely see 2 buddha heads, both with eyes closed, both in inner immersion. And you have what appears to be a western face, a bearded guardian or one of those faces that grace fountains or doorways---but it's very western to my eyes; and I wonder if the buddhas aren't turning away from him, from western thought, from western culture or religion, or from the opulence and riches that often accompany such carvings. In any case, the buddhas and 'bearded one' seem surrounded by walls of carved stone (I see a horse in a frieze of some kind) and friezes and other statuary one would find on temple walls. And these buddha heads seem oblivious (looking away), in another realm. You've textured the surfaces once more, a kind of 'process' texture as you do in many of your pieces; and it seems like you've brushed some of the areas over, as in the right-most buddha who was either brushed over or placed over a brushed-over area. As always, I love your border and what you did to it, how it spills with the white, and how it's very active and 'in process'. I love how you do that with borders. Another thought provoking piece, a subtle call to deeper places (I really feel rejection from the buddhas, like Lucinda implies), and surrounded by your organic process. A fine & highly articulate vision from you; and your physical process, as always, is endlessly fascinating.