The Oxford Dictionary defines an artist as: A person who produces paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby.
This certainly would include an awful lot of people. I guess with such a broad definition, I don't need to carry any sort of card proving that I am an artist. The one way I can see to set oneself apart from the millions of other "artists" would be to be a "GOOD artist", so with that in mind I created this certificate which I will now hang on my wall.
Art has been used, through the centuries, as a tool for the expression of mans' innermost feelings or to make some sort of metaphysical, religious or political statement. Art can tell a story or trigger the imagination. Art can provoke emotion or titillate or simply bring pleasure to an otherwise mundane world.
"My art right now is more like the latter; less intense, more like 'art for art's sake', pretty pictures to adorn a wall, but each piece, whether it has its own story or not, hopefully gives pleasure and does not ask for an expenditure of too much cerebral energy in return."
The individual visual artist has never before had such a dazzling array of tools available to him at reasonable cost. Modern technology has opened up new methods of producing art. The digital camera allows one to take hundreds if not thousands of images. The computer has facilitated the storage, recall, processing, manipulation and displaying of these images. Finally, the modern colour printer has enabled fine quality physical prints using various mediums. All these things did not exist or were, until recently, exclusively in the realm of the commercial artist, and unavailable to an ordinary person except at great cost and inconvenience.
Tim Carroll was born in London, Canada, but also lived in North Bay and Toronto. Studied industrial design at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto.
Worked as a studio crewman and in the properties department of television station CFPL London.
For several semesters hosted a third year industrial design part-time studio at Fanshawe College, London Ontario
Owned and operated a successful hospital bed manufacturing factory, Carroll Healthcare Inc.
Retired at age 47, and turned more attention to photography and art.
"With a passion for art and a background in industrial design I tend to enjoy the somewhat rigid structure of man-made objects and architecture; often in juxtaposition with nature, in the form of plants, animals or the environment."
"In my finished works I invariably start from either a photograph that I have taken or a historical/vintage postcard or photograph that is in the public domain. I have a great love of local history and so the old materials give me the ability go back in time virtually and overlay my modern interpretation which often involves coloring original black and whites. Often I will combine new images with old photographs or postcards in a new composite work."
"I maintain a studio and production facility in my home which allows me to produce finished pieces quickly and economically with the ability to customize the final presentation creatively. With the advent of modern coatings applied to my reproductions, and in light of my industrial design background, I now offer glassless frames and mounts which allow viewing of the artwork without the interference of annoying glare. Mat borders can be printed on to the picture in order to set it off from the background. With no glass covering the art, the resulting colors appear much more vibrant and clear, and the work can actually be wiped clean with a damp cloth."