Inspiration and Perspiration

This past Monday night, Tim Lowly, the famous artist (I'll post one of his works), dropped by Seattle Pacific University to perform some songs that he has written. His opening act was a man by the name of Robert Deeble who was immediately impressive in his songwriting and guitar playing. He was one of those players that liked to hit his strings and guitar and use a lot of harmonics, and was actually good at it! Here's an example of some of his work:

So after he played a few songs with some nice photo imagery playing upon the wall, Tim played a handful of his own songs. He seemed to be slightly nervous following Robert's great show and not being backed up by his band, but he soon found his groove and it lent his show a nice intimate feeling. His singing voice is definitely not like his speaking voice; he drops into a lower register and it becomes almost mournful.

So, he's a talented musician with a creative drive, but can he paint? My good sir, he can! In fact, that is his vocation! He visited SPU again the next morning to discuss his career as an artist and what he has learned about what it means to be an artist. Two very important things that struck me: "Paint what you love" and the idea that we all have a sympathetic vibration, which means that when we view or hear something that is beautiful to us, it is a reflection of our own artistic idea of beauty and therefore something that we can utilize within our own artwork and find satisfaction. It seems to make sense. 

The drive behind Tim's art is his daughter. She was born in 1985 a healthy baby, but two days later she had a cardiac arrest and suffered significant brain damage which has led to physical ailment. At first it was quite the sad shock to Tim and his wife, like it would be to anybody, but after a while their lives began to revolve around Temma's life in all good ways. Tim's inspiration draws heavily from that relationship with her and he includes her in almost all of his works. For example:

Temma On Earth, by Tim Lowly

This large four piece work (8'x12') is an acquisition of the Frye Art Museum here in Seattle and is one of Tim's most famous works. He is definitely a realist painter and takes a lot of time on his works. I've seen it in person and it is genuinely remarkable. I had a tough time trying to look at the surrounding works, because I was constantly drawn to this one.

So, that was Monday and Tuesday.

I also need to buy some new deodorant. 

That's why I put perspiration in the title.