Tuesday, May 17, 2005
The next bit of ‘blogging without typing…and a little dead horse beating for good measure
Hey who doesn’t want to read more about an art opening I was a part of like 3 months ago?
Well, I was pretty flattered that a college student did a paper on me. I mentioned it in the “I have arrived. I have left” entry at the beginning of this month.
She kindly allowed me to post it. Believe it or not, for all my rambling, and Travis’s article on the opening, there is actually some new information. Now if I could only figure out who this Edgar Degas is. Any relation to the Connecticut Degas?
Reminiscent of the science fiction movies of the late 1950s, Tim Stotz's photomanipulation depicts giant women towering over the city of Rockford with the series he calls . . . Rockford: Small City, Snapshots of an Apotheosis.
I met Tim at the Rockford Art Museum back in February for the 2020 Visions show. It was his first art opening and I could tell he was quite nervous. I finally got close enough to ask him a few questions.
The medium used is digital photography, the program used for the manipulation was Photoshop. He also said "The camera fulfilled a similar role that a scanner would . . . merely a means to get a base image into the digital realm where I could manipulate it."
Tim said he didn't have any direct influences, in most respects. "There's obviously some Helmut Newton in there, some fashion photography slicks, and snapshots kind collide in tone." If he had to pick Tim would compare himself most with Swift, the Augustine writer of Gulliver's Travels. In my opinion it's obvious that Tim finds the female figure more interesting, which reminds me a bit of Edgar Degas in that sense . . . you don't see any males stomping around Rockford. I can also see some pop art like Andy Warhol and as well as surrealism.
When asked about his background his response was "I have drawn all my life, and written and acted and generally hammed it up. I'm not utterly unhappy with this reality, but even a freaked out, surreal one that has giant women in it has more order than our real one. I've always been into world building." Tim got his BA in English at Rockford College, he says he didn't really take any art classes, and that he taught himself video, still photography, and to illustrate digitally. He now does video and illustration commercially for a living.
My personal opinion in his work is that it is very original. You don't really have to have a trained artistic eye to appreciate his work, its almost entertaining to view. Each work tells a story that the viewer can imagine. There are many details that are not immediately apparent at first glance. Like "Catch a glimpse" which has a woman walking past a construction site looking down at her leg, as you follow the implied line from her eyes you see that she has caught her fishnet stocking on the hook of a crane.
When I was looking over "Snack Attack" Tim pointed out that the model in the picture was a complete vegan, and yet there she was eating small people. Originally Tim said he was going to use male models as the little people being eaten by the vegan, "I went to one of my favorite watering holes and asked for volunteers to be eaten by a giant woman. I figured every one in the room would think I was a sicko, and should immediately seek help, and no small amount of it. But, on the contrary, every male hand in the place shot up." Later he decided it would be better to use 3-D people.
At the 2020 Visions show I wasn't very impressed with a lot of the work there, but Tim's work grabbed me with curiosity I had to take a closer look. Out of the fifteen photos I liked "Catch a Glimpse," "Snack Attack," and "Out of the Reign" the most.
I really enjoyed looking over Tim's work and getting to know the artist. I found out that this summer Tim plans to start shooting for a second series of the 500 foot tall women, which I have been asked to be one of the models for . . . but for this series there might be a twist, there's possibilities, probabilities, premonitions, and predictions for Tim's next series. Who knows; this could be big!
Well, I was pretty flattered that a college student did a paper on me. I mentioned it in the “I have arrived. I have left” entry at the beginning of this month.
She kindly allowed me to post it. Believe it or not, for all my rambling, and Travis’s article on the opening, there is actually some new information. Now if I could only figure out who this Edgar Degas is. Any relation to the Connecticut Degas?
Reminiscent of the science fiction movies of the late 1950s, Tim Stotz's photomanipulation depicts giant women towering over the city of Rockford with the series he calls . . . Rockford: Small City, Snapshots of an Apotheosis.
I met Tim at the Rockford Art Museum back in February for the 2020 Visions show. It was his first art opening and I could tell he was quite nervous. I finally got close enough to ask him a few questions.
The medium used is digital photography, the program used for the manipulation was Photoshop. He also said "The camera fulfilled a similar role that a scanner would . . . merely a means to get a base image into the digital realm where I could manipulate it."
Tim said he didn't have any direct influences, in most respects. "There's obviously some Helmut Newton in there, some fashion photography slicks, and snapshots kind collide in tone." If he had to pick Tim would compare himself most with Swift, the Augustine writer of Gulliver's Travels. In my opinion it's obvious that Tim finds the female figure more interesting, which reminds me a bit of Edgar Degas in that sense . . . you don't see any males stomping around Rockford. I can also see some pop art like Andy Warhol and as well as surrealism.
When asked about his background his response was "I have drawn all my life, and written and acted and generally hammed it up. I'm not utterly unhappy with this reality, but even a freaked out, surreal one that has giant women in it has more order than our real one. I've always been into world building." Tim got his BA in English at Rockford College, he says he didn't really take any art classes, and that he taught himself video, still photography, and to illustrate digitally. He now does video and illustration commercially for a living.
My personal opinion in his work is that it is very original. You don't really have to have a trained artistic eye to appreciate his work, its almost entertaining to view. Each work tells a story that the viewer can imagine. There are many details that are not immediately apparent at first glance. Like "Catch a glimpse" which has a woman walking past a construction site looking down at her leg, as you follow the implied line from her eyes you see that she has caught her fishnet stocking on the hook of a crane.
When I was looking over "Snack Attack" Tim pointed out that the model in the picture was a complete vegan, and yet there she was eating small people. Originally Tim said he was going to use male models as the little people being eaten by the vegan, "I went to one of my favorite watering holes and asked for volunteers to be eaten by a giant woman. I figured every one in the room would think I was a sicko, and should immediately seek help, and no small amount of it. But, on the contrary, every male hand in the place shot up." Later he decided it would be better to use 3-D people.
At the 2020 Visions show I wasn't very impressed with a lot of the work there, but Tim's work grabbed me with curiosity I had to take a closer look. Out of the fifteen photos I liked "Catch a Glimpse," "Snack Attack," and "Out of the Reign" the most.
I really enjoyed looking over Tim's work and getting to know the artist. I found out that this summer Tim plans to start shooting for a second series of the 500 foot tall women, which I have been asked to be one of the models for . . . but for this series there might be a twist, there's possibilities, probabilities, premonitions, and predictions for Tim's next series. Who knows; this could be big!
// posted by Tim @ 10:36 PM 
