THE LOST AND FOUND

Head down to the Ayden Gallery tonight, some time between 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM, and buy this guy’s shit. One of the most prominent artists featured, among a slew of other equally talented individuals, Tim Barnard’s work will be hard to miss. As he puts it, his “focus on the infinite extremities inherent in the possibilities of high contrast black and white automatic drawing,” has given him a very distinct and original style. Equipped with nothing but a black marker a lot of the time and filling up entire eight foot canvases, the dude definitely has some skills.

(Tim working on ‘The Immaculate Hope Grenade,’ Private residence, 2007)

See more and read up, after the jump…

Recently, an opportunity to finally get this interview finished presented itself, and the resulting dialogue turned out to be almost a must read. Tim and I covered everything from music to microchips being implanted in people’s brains by the government. And of course, I asked him a lot of questions regarding his influences (graffiti, among other things), his career, what advice he has for aspiring artists, etc. Definitely a worthwhile read whether or not you even enjoy looking at art… (but who doesn’t?)

LAF: Okay, for those who aren’t familiar with you and your work, a quick introduction please.

Tim: Well my name is Tim and i make art and do design stuff. I usually say i am a Californialbertan, because i spent so much time in those places, but i live in Montreal now.

Cool. So I know you traveled a lot as a kid, what impact do you think that had on your drawings?

Yeah, my parents split up when I was pretty young and for a while they were really nomadic people so being an only child, constantly on the road, I had a lot of time to draw and read comic books. If anything, it allowed me a lot of time to practice.

Nice, definitely a lot of time to harness your skills. How do you think this lifestyle during your childhood actually influenced your style though? Do you ever think all the characters you met along the way, come out in your works subconsciously or anything? (Laughs)

Not the characters so much, but the experiences of my life obviously influence them.

Is your work…personal in a way that only you can perceive? Or is most of it randomly conjured up by your imagination or subconscious? …Or, is it a balance of both?

Hmm…

Another way to put it is, is your work full of inside jokes that only you, and maybe some close friends or family, would get?

All of the above but it is important to remember that for me it is mainly about the process of drawing. The product is a superficial environment a viewer may enter to discover how their own lives inform a meta-narrative in what i would call an infinite comic. No beginning or end, yet infinite possibilities. … Tons of inside jokes but like i said it is really not the focus.

For sure man, a good way to describe your style. I know you did your own independent comics before. Did its pages have the same distinct style? Or were the drawings separated into panels like in most comic books?

Yes, we used some panels. I experimented with a multitude of styles in a compilation which feature some of my friends work so that my many styles would appear as if they were many different artists. I have such a heightened level of A.D.D. that i am constantly working on a billion things. Even now the simpsons are on and i have like 10 windows open on my computer.

Speaking of working on a billion things, I know you’ve done everything from storyboarding to graphic design…

Yes, i have tried and been hired to do soooo many different projects

Out of everything you do and have done outside of just your own drawings and everything, which did you enjoy most?

Women… but they are the hardest to work with.

(Laughs) Truee… good answer. But if you couldn’t be an independent artist and had to work for someone doing some other job, what would it be?

I was a huge fan of the military when i was young so if i had more discipline i would have been a sniper or helicopter pilot. Seriously though i really enjoy the end results of video and animation. And metal. I love to play heavy metal.

(From the ‘Five Horsemen‘ (Series) 4×4′ each. Marker and canvas, 2007)

Sweet. Wasn’t your first art show like 10 years ago in Mexico or something? How much more do people jock your shit now at art shows compared to back then? Or has the reaction always been positive and pretty much the same?

What you mean jock your shit?

Like telling you how awesome you are…

Oh, well that has always happened and it has been one of my biggest problems because i have an intense fear of success.

Do you think having a good group of friends around you like all the dudes from Evil Bad supporting you, has helped you embrace success?

Yeah I got some good homies and a lot of French rock musicians that think I’m pretty funny.

Ha ha. Do you think you’ll focus more on animation and video in the near future.. like maybe for a heavy metal music video? Or does that whole A.D.D. thing apply here and you already work on things like that right now?

For seven years i have been working on a project that may never be realized…

An animation project?

I hope so. I felt that in my work i wouldn’t want to spend any more time on linear based narrative unless it was a very strong compelling story that dealt with classic themes in literature and mythologies.

So you decided to spend a lot of time on a single awesome film.

It could take another 7 or 20 years. Work is qualitative in that time builds “good” work.

Very true, your work is super detailed. Well I hope it gets finished some day. So we know you like heavy metal, but I’ve also noticed a lot of hip hop influences in your work. You even did a rap series. Which came first for you as a kid, hip hop or rock/metal?

It was first hippie 60’s shit my folks were into.

(’The High Cost of Evil‘ 2×2.5′ canvas 2007)

What came after hippie 60’s shit?

Actually, wait, my first tape was the Beverly Hills Cop sound track i still love The Neutron Dance by The Pointer Sisters.

(Laughs) Dude I’m totally posting that song at this point in the interview for peeps to listen to. Ill movie, ill soundtrack.

Yeah, then there was kid in my math class that got me into PE (Public enemy) and then KRS 1 and Ultra Magnetics. I still think Kool Keith is a true genius.

Word…interesting that you mention that ’cause Kool Keith came up a lot in our interview with Del the Funky Homosapien

Yeah. Also, blues. I study music constantly and have been obsessively making mix tapes since i was eight. That’s what i am doing while i am drawing, making tapes. Sometime it’s the itunes though.

(Laughs) So it was like 60’s hippie shit plus 80’s movie soundtracks, and then blues and golden era hip hop?

Everywhere all the time in the same moment know what ah mean…

Word. When do u think the golden era of hip hop died? Did you listen to ‘Illmatic‘ back in ‘94, or had you lost interest at that point?

Man there is so much, i get lost. I just got R. Kelly the other day even that is pretty ill. I have a lot of respect for Timbaland.

Yeah man i was going to say, nowadays all the music we’ve talked about so far is getting blended together. Mostly with hip hop… dj’s are doing mash-ups or producers are sampling everything from techno to country. Do you think in a few years it will be hard to even define musical genres?

No, i think it will be like the consciousness of the world with the chip inside us. We are in an amazing time and the twilight of free thought

Whoa, I’ll ask you about that in a sec. I’m looking at your piece from 1998 called The End of the End and see some graffiti influences. Did you used to write?

(’Elvin Pharoahs Selling Seconds to Minutes‘ 2×3′ 2007)

If you can call it writing—just a bunch of whack wall drawing. I used to write “Lame” on a lot of shit and once painted about a dozen characters all around Vancity in one night. Ever seen them out there?

Cool, man I might have. ‘Kay expand on that..music..world..chip-inside-us thing. I’m intrigued.

You know, the computer chips that will be our personal tracking system, credit card, ipod, black berry, all inside our head. Check out that Zeitgeist movie on youtube just to start with. It is a way that humans are going to have to face the environmental cataclysm we have created to our earth.

Yeah i know about some of that. I thought it was going to start out as like a chip in our hand that we swipe instead of using money? And i heard there’s references to such a concept..in the bible..as a sign of the apocalypse. (Laughs)

But i want to say as well that I am not stating these things in a pessimistic way. I have huge optimism that we will eventually arrive at a global consciousness that we cannot even fathom in our current minds.

Yup, more highly evolved beings. Do you see the development and implementation of this technology being a direct result of these cataclysmic times? Like the government will have to ration everything so much that they’ll put chips in use to monitor us and our consumption?

And do you capture a lot of these concepts in your art? ‘Cause now that we’re talking about it, it seems like you do… from what I’ve seen.

Exactly. If you look at the curve of civilization this experiment of democracy/freedom must end—the empire must regain absolute control while still giving the sheep the illusion of free thought. … I share a few of these thoughts in the work but more as a stand up comedian would. Like laughing in the face of the grim reaper.

Can you recommend to our readers a few other books or movies on this shit…

Good lord there is so much amazing shit. If there is any references i would begin by reading all the John Steinbeck novels and the poetry of Charles Bukowski. I love ‘Apocalypse Now’ too, that is an amazing representation of what it truly means to live the life of being an artist…

That’s deep, I never thought of it that way. Are you saying the Colonel (Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now) took that untouched world of that tribe in the jungle and approached it like a blank canvas? Like the reality he created there was his art?

I really think that to create we must be always on the verge of bitter darkness and face our own fears and deeper evil. The act of creation is to assassinate that which is darkest in our soul. Another life changing film is Frederico Fellini’s ‘Eight and a Half.’

Do you think this understanding separates true artists from wannabe artists, or just immature artists? Or is it different for everyone? Maybe it would be more politically correct to ask it like this: do you think true artists have to know and explore themselves—both their dark sides and positive sides—to truly create art?

I think you are right, it is a level of maturity and time. And yes, it is important to not place value hierarchies on art. We are all different and have individual values and powers to share.

Word. Do you think part of the reason your style evolved into its current form is that you’re creating a world when you draw, just like the General dude in Apocalypse Now created a world in the jungle? (Laughs)

In a way, yeah. But I’m not really seeing that connection until just now. Recently i try to achieve the understanding of silence. Hmm.. a total contradiction to what I just said, but conversation enhances the understanding of work and should be appreciated as such.

I got a print from you called ‘Silence the Edge of Death.’ Was that piece a result of your fascination with the concept of understanding silence?

Yes it also—as in all my work—has two meanings. As in, silence could be the edge of death or we can silence the edge of death.

(‘The Short Films of Al Capone’ 2×3′ marker and canvas 2008)

So what does silence mean and symbolize to you? Both literally and figuratively…

It is important to search for what is important to you in making work. “What am I trying to say, and why?” and the ONLY way to do this is through inaction and silence, dig? Like sitting on a mountain while gods breathe blows diamonds through your hair.

Definitely something that has been documented historically .. buddhists with their meditation leading to enlightenment, and all that. Have you ever read The Alchemist?

That’s my favorite novel of all time. It is one of the only novels that i actually own because a friend found an english illustrated hard copy in a cab one time and being french he gave it to me. I actually paid tribute in one of my drawings, it’s on my site.

No way..that’s awesome man. Good coincidence. Which one is it on your site?

Alchemissle is what it’s called. Get the joke?

(Laughs) I think so but would i have to see the drawing first?

Check it out, it’s small but in the top left corner there are these space men who approach the boy digging the hole beside the pyramids.

Okay, so you’ve been in the “art game” for like 10 plus years… Your first show was how long ago? …What advice do you have, that we haven’t already indirectly covered, for aspiring artists out there?

Yeah i started showing in art college. My favorite advice is to practice every day and make tons of shitty drawings to find their beauty and take your successful drawings and burn them. It is through this negation of the ego where true creativity will blossom.

That is good motherfuckin’ advice.

Just keep experimenting and have fun. If you don’t like it, don’t do it. There is enough competition out there. Like Walt Disney said, “there are enough obscenities in the world with out me adding to it.” This is why there is not a lot of sex and violence in my work. We as artists need to draw the line… literally.

Nice, man. So your art is going to be for sale here in Vancouver soon…quickly let the people know what to expect there and everything.

Um yeah at Brave Art and The Cheaper Show..

How many pieces will be at each? Will they be available first at
Brave Art and then at Cheaper, or are there different pieces for each?

Brave Art has some canvases and Cheaper Show will have some framed drawings.

Sweet, I look forward to seeing them.

June 11 Brave Art and Cheaper Show I think is the 21st, i have no idea where either are though. Maybe you can inform the people…

For sure. Hey who are some writers you know from Montreal by the way?

Umm, Kops krew, heavy weight…

Shout outs to kops krew (Laughs). Go ahead and shout out your other homies, … projects and business partners real quick too. Evil Bad Clothing doin’ big things…

Of course Evil Bad, my company. But also Lifetime Collective. I just did some boards for Endeavor out there in Van, Six Pack in France… I am doing drawings for a few books right now. Now I’m feeling lazy… i should get back to work. Hit me back soon.

For sure… alright well thanks for your time. Definitely interesting.

Yeah, pretty cool talkin’, man.

Peace.

Okay, peace out.