The Artist
Now Showing at M2 Gallery

I was looking for places to photograph along a county road. This is when I came across a bicycle fence. I left a note stating that I would like to photograph the fence .Tim soon sent me back a letter telling me to park at his fence, honk 3 times and he would then come out to meet me.  Well, I did....when he came out of the thick woods I knew immediately that he was my subject.  This is the most interesting and artistic man I have ever met!  He has now become my subject. What started out as an environmental portrait session has turned into a full-blown documentary project. I have been photographing Tim for the past three years. With my photos I am telling his story through his physical body, environment and art. Documenting his work through time and how it changes has become an important element in this work. I want to document Tim’s work while I can. His work mimics mine in subject matter and the temporary aspects of them. Here today, gone tomorrow….
- Diana Michelle Hausam

Artist Statement - Tim West

Well, maybe four out of 100 will understand my art.  For those four, they will be led by whatever force to find me and my art.  It's a long walk to an unknown destination.  I have no idea what I am doing ... I am ashamed of my obsession and beauty is impossible to define accurately.  Still, I guess I know what I'm doing and compare it with what I could have done, but didn't.
 
I understand art; I don't understand art.  Do we really know why we are alive or what death is?   Who needs all the answers.  Settle for a mystery.  If words could say it all, who needs pictures?
 
My work is created on impulse.  Symbols and shapes take form without a clear path.  Rhythm, repetition and design take shape as I fill my drawings and sculptures with my surroundings ... trees, structures, bicycles.  Life, eternity and death become my work.  Why live, why die, why try?
 
Have fun trying to figure me out and I can perhaps explain it a little better if I try.  For more, I will sound like a fool.
 
I'm 71 years old and don't have any good explanation for how I lived or why.
 
- Tim West

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