Black Drawings and Other Considerations
Talking the talk and hoping someone was listening
Wednesday was a marathon of a day at Mercer County Community College for me. I had to get up earlier than usual to get all of my morning tasks done before catching a regional rail train from Philly to Trenton’s Transit Station. From there, I got a Lyft to the school. All went well, thankfully. The timing for each leg of the trip had to line up perfectly in order for me to arrive on time (10 minutes before) for my talk.
There was barely any time for a sigh of relief once I was at the lecture hall door. I was fitted with a mic and had to pretty much jump right into my talk. Thankfully, I thought to bring my laptop, because my presentation on my thumb drive wasn’t compatible with the in-house computer for some reason.
Anyway, the talk went really well once I found my footing after three or four minutes of shaking the nerves off. I hadn’t given a public art talk of this kind in a while and I usually have to settle myself down a bit in the beginning regardless of how many times I speak about my work.
I’m in the habit of tweaking my talks for different audiences and since this was a student-heavy forum, I geared the bulk of it towards them. Some points I made sure to hit:
My artistic background having learned the basics of drawing and painting from life and how observation(s) of my everyday surroundings continues to inform all of my non-objective work
Having dropped out of college for about five years, continuing to make art, returning to school and how it solidified my choice to pursue an art-centered life. How the sometimes non-linear paths to being an artist, interruptions and set backs of all sorts included, are the more realistic way things play out in an art life.
Having worked day jobs to support myself over the years and how more likely that is to be the case for them.
Insisting that they are still artists regardless of working other jobs to support their creative habits.
Treat social media as a tool and nothing more. Disregard “followers” and “likes” numbers and algorithms on social media and connect with/solidify relationships more people face-to-face.
If they like money, then they’re better off pursuing something that will be more stable and profitable. I don’t like to sugar-coat the money aspect when I talk to students. I tell them that they can make money as artists, but it most likely won’ t be as fine artists.
Their love of making things should be the driving force behind what they do as artists.
There were bits of topics that I’d forgotten or didn’t mention in the name of time (I had the standard 45 minutes and remaining time for questions.), but I think I gave them enough to grab onto and mull over.
The q & a part of the talk was really good, with a lot of great questions about my work and practice from the students and faculty.
There’s always that one question that you wish you’d answered differently. I was asked by one of faculty members if the colors or some of the forms I used in my work had any political significance. In the moment, I said no, they didn’t and that’s true; I don’t intentionally think about, nor imbue my paintings with direct socio/political content.
Reflecting on that question afterwards, I wished I’d have answered differently. As in, almost everything that I make is political simply because I’m a Black male artist in the U.S. making work that is resolutely abstract. Based in my experiences of the world, but not tied particular places, people or things. Mine is a particularly interesting position to stake, especially since we’ve been in a moment where Black figuration has been brought to the forefront of the wider art world again in recent years. There’s a lot behind that, but I’ll leave that conversation for another time.
I knew back in high school that I didn’t want to box myself into the realm of figuration because there were so many other ideas and concepts that interested me. Two notable influences were comics and science fiction. Whole realms of possibilities and concepts that excited me and went far beyond the physical world. Those were spaces that drew me in, the theater of the mind.
I was also acutely aware of the historically narrow lane of acceptance for the types of art Black artists were expected to make, by both Black and white audiences. That is to say, a majority of Black people have wanted to see themselves, their lives and passions depicted artistically with the same humanity and dignity given to white subjects. Considering our history in the U.S., that’s not an unreasonable desire.
Black people have lives and imaginations that are much deeper and much more expansive than any of the stereotypes and assumptions placed on us. I saw it as a personal mission to not make what was expected of me.
I feel like that approach has served me well.
A look around at Black Drawings and Other Things You Didn’t Know About
Last week, I delivered my work to MCCC and installed two new wall collages, but had no clue as to how everything would come together until I went to give my talk this past Wednesday and attend the reception later that afternoon. I was really happy with how the show had been hung and a big shout out to gallery director, Lucas Kelly for his vision in curating the installation and I’m enormously grateful for him bringing my work into the gallery and the chance to interact with the students at MCCC. Thanks also to gallery assistant, Karolina for helping make sure things went smoothly with everything else.
The gallery space is basically a long rectangle with two squares for rooms on each end, so there’s ample ways to create conversations among various works. The three Black Drawing paintings are spread out among the three spaces (one in each room) they play off of other paintings I’ve made over the past four years that are conceptually different, but also quite similar in many ways.
I know everyone can’t make it to West Windsor, New Jersey, so here’s a tour of the show, just for you…
End Room One
A Sure Thing, For Sure, One Way Out, I Wanted You To Have This (wall collage), Black Drawing 2
Middle Wall
Photo 1.: I Was Just Sitting There Thinking, Large Bright Corner, Photo 2: Black Drawing 3, Photo 3: Reconfigured Portal Endpoint, A Face Full of Bright Air, To Float Perhaps Finding Peace
End Room 2
Photo 1: Black Drawing 1, There’s No Mistaking What Happened Photo 2: There’s No Mistaking What Happened (wall collage), Photo 3: The Roar Between Two Beats and Echoes of Lessons Learned
The tour’s over, but if you live within driving distance of Mercer County Community College or know friends and/or family who does, here’s info about the show:
The Gallery at MCCC is located in the Communications Building (CM) on this map (link)
Gallery Hours: Mon., Wed.: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Tue., Thur.: 12 to 7 p.m.
All works are available for purchase and inquiries can be directed to the Bridgette Mayer Gallery (Philadelphia, PA)
If you have any questions for me about the work, leave a comment or feel free to email me: tim@timmcfarlane.com
Left behind but not lost
I didn’t realize it until we were almost at the drop-off point for the exhibition paintings, but Silent Listener was left behind in the studio. I’d moved a couple of paintings to get to others behind them and wound up burying this one. Out of sight, out of mind, lol!
The good thing is that it turned out that I didn’t need Silent Listener, anyway. The show flows really well without it, so there was nothing lost by having left it behind.
Yesterday, it was cold enough to don the studio cap and jacket in here for the first time since late March. Now, it’s a game of seeing how long I can go without turning the heat on. It’s going to be a while before that happens because I can be stubborn and just keep putting on layers like I used to when I worked in spaces without heat.
Random thing you didn’t know about me: I love cherry sours. I try not to have them around all of the time, but when I do, I keep a few in a pocket and hold myself to having just what I picked out.
No, that doesn’t always work.
Grapes are my back-up.
Thanks for being here!
I always enjoy reading your post and look forward to them. Great talk and thanks for sharing it with us!
Tim, sounds like a great talk. Full of wisdom, but also not sugar-coating as you say. Young artists need more mentors so I admire and commend you for getting out there and giving a talk. Such important work.