Dwayne Butcher: Artist Interview with Tim Kinard 8/1/06

DB: What are your methods of visualization? How does your creative process begin?

TK: I started out as an illustrator and fell in love with sculpture, so before I make anything I sketch it as if it were a blueprint. As for the subject matter I draw upon my interests and what effects me.

DB: Having received your undergrad in Mississippi, how has coming to graduate school in Memphis affected your work? And what do you think of the Memphis art scene?

TK: Memphis has a much larger art scene than the Gulfport and Biloxi area, the gulfs art scene was just starting to develop in to something and then of course Katrina put a hold on that. My undergrad in Mississippi was technically based I honed my skills and was introduced to formal art. Memphis has challenged my ideas and made me venerable again which is both unsettling and great.

DB: What exhibit or show you have seen has most influenced your work?

TK: I don't know that other art really influences my work that much; I try to stay out of that (art versus art) cycle where ideas are based on the edited work of others. I want to create something candid that is about my life. There was a technology fair at the Fed Ex building on U of M campus it was three days long and I attended every debate. It wasn't an art show but it gave me what I needed and got me to thinking about my place in techno-society.

DB: Explain your work in five words or less.

TK: Reactionary, narrative, sub-pop, comic, toys

DB: What is your favorite - movie? book? color? smell? food?

TK: Movie - The Goonies
Book- Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins
Color- Texas in late summer
Smell- a leather jacket on a cold night outside
Food- that's like asking mother Teresa to choose her favorite sinner.