Mark Barry Timmins is this month’s featured artist you can see their work on the website link at the bottom of the piece…
Bio
Mark Barry Timmins spent twenty years as a full-time designer and illustrator in the greetings card industry. He then made a decision to devote his time and energies to developing his own painting. This decision saved his creative life. Connecting to his interior world became a source of healing and creative strength.
My Practice;
My art practice centers around intuitive drawing and painting. I rarely pre-plan. If I do then the original idea is still based on an intuitive artwork. Often starting points are abstract shapes and marks, other times doodles from a sketchbook with my left hand. My practice is meditative and spiritual. In trying to connect to a creative source, I often find the end result describes a specific place or people. A sanctuary. A tribe. Images are also connected with a childhood memory.
I guess that my work is basically Inner Child Therapy.
Is Art relevant?
Yes, I believe that art is a bridge to our higher and more emotional selves. To me, it is a healing resource. I also see it as a connection to our ancestors.
What Art influences you?
Outsider art influences me the most. Institutional art where the creative is constantly repeating the same motif. I find that fascinating and moving. A compulsion to keep repeating the same message. Transmitting without caring about who will like or appreciate it. As if angels are whispering in their ear. I do not like art that resembles external realism. I can appreciate the great skill but I personally find it soulless.
What advice would you have given yourself 10 / 20 years ago?
Trust your instincts more. Be less bothered about what others think of you. They are not on your journey. You are the only one who can make that journey.
Follow your bliss…do not be afraid of it. See it as a guide.
Where do you see yourself in the future?
I am not sure. I hope that I will evolve an art practice where I am still in constant contact with Source. With my interior world. To have developed a way of working where my Inner Child is the center of my art and my creative endeavours. I hope to have created things that have brought Him joy ( and in doing so, to myself too).