Timothy Massey
Assistant Professor
Gallery Director,
Tower Fine Art Gallery
SUNY Brockport
350 New Campus Drive
Brockport, NY 14420
(716) 395-2805
ARTIST STATEMENT
The process of making art is perpetually grounded in change, adjustments in attitudes and the way one views his or her inner and outer world. A few years ago I had a solo exhibition called "Regret". At the time such a title was appropriate, as half the work in the show relayed an acknowledgment of unfortunate experiences, while the other half of the show was more encouraging in looking to the future. Although possibly unrecognized (or only subtly so) by an audience, an artistıs personal vision is constantly evolving, based on interests and stimuli of the moment.
Oddly enough, my main visual interests in dogs, natural forms and some suggestion of human presence have remained constant for quite some time, yet the circumstances regarding the motivation to create any given work at any given time tends to follow the ebb and flow of living from day to day. In analyzing how I think about what I do, I have come to the conclusion that my images are all about trust, faith and control, or the lack thereof. Dogs and plant life are two prime examples of what we as humans have tried to control through domestication, breeding, grafting, etc., yet the balance between domesticity and wildness is tenuous. We put faith in the thought that our pet will be completely loyal to us, yet it is still an animal with animal instincts. As I work on images I tend to think about the idea of control versus the endearing, the dangerous, and the precarious relationship we have with various facets of our personal worlds. Control or be controlled. Dogs and plant forms, although a high visual, personal and emotional interest of mine, are merely what I have found to be good conduits of metaphor toward not only our desire to control our own destiny, but also the realizations of loss, regret and recovery. For the most recent past, this notion has been the conclusive result of the perpetual evolution of what I do visually.
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