Tim Harney: Artist's Statement

The preoccupations of my work are many and varied. While I paint landscapes, still life and make non-objective collages, the imagery of my paintings often involves the figure and some form of psychological portraiture. Some of the ideas and feelings I endeavor to express concern a sense of loss, the passage of time, things remembered or glimpsed -a history. The subject matter is second nature to me: family, history, memory, dreams and loss are the stuff of living and breathing and obviously, painting.

I hesitate when discussing the content of my work because one runs the risk of separating the medium of expression from the imagery. To speak of these things independent of each other is meaningless.

How I subtract or add to one form or another, juxtapose sizes and shapes, the consideration given to paint, color and the marriage of different materials (and sources) has everything to do with the feelings and more literal aspects of my paintings. These are collections of things: materials with their own history, materials with a history I've invested in them.

I work in a variety of media including oil, acrylic, pastel and collage. The dimensions of my work vary from large canvases to the smallest of miniatures. I am a painter.