Today, we’d like to introduce you to Tim Davis.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I came to Washington, DC, in the mid-90s as a grantee from the National Endowment of the Arts. I moved my family from the Chicago area and began working as an art specialist at the endowment. I decided to continue working in the arts in the Washington area.
I began to work as an art administrator at DC Artworks and The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. In both places, I helped artists secure jobs in the art fields and ran the first Art in Public Places mural program. In 1997, with other artists, I opened up the International Visions Gallery and began to exhibit works from local, regional, and international artists while teaching painting, design, and computer graphics in Fairfax County public schools. I never stopped working on my art practice and continued to exhibit in many places in the U.S., like Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Miami, Maryland, and the DC metropolitan area.
As the owner of a gallery, I had an opportunity to work with many artists, collectors, and museums to understand the business of art and create a creative space where people from all over the world can come engage in meaningful conversations about art stories, life, politics and meet artists from Australia, Bulgaria, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria Haiti, and Martinique just to name a few. Currently, I have retired from teaching art after 30 years, closed the physical space, and have the business online.
I would say I got here through trusting in my higher power, desire, hard work, and resilience. Art has taken me all over the world, most recently to Malawi and Ethiopia on the continent of Africa, conducting artwork shops, organizing shows, and exhibiting through the Art and Embassies program.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road but an interesting journey. Having a family with three children, teaching, and owning and directing a gallery business doesn’t leave a lot of personal time. The biggest problem with running an art gallery is that most people view art a luxury item and not a need as part of their life so sales are always different from month to month and both you and the artists need that for survival.
In some months, we would sell lots of art, and in other months, nothing. The first couple of years were really bad, and I remember 2008 when the market collapsed, was another critical time for business. I was willing to do what it took; teaching and creating my own art helped balance my life, so I was able to move between the three as a challenge, so it made me more focused on the possibility and desire to do the best job in each.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I began working in art in high school and decided to get my master’s in teaching and art/painting. I create paintings that I feel are unique because I try to go beyond the norm with portraiture and figures. My work is stylized and, many times, void of the features of the face. I want the viewer to see more while exploring different narratives and creating dialogue for growth about history and identity.
I use mixed media with acrylic, graphite, photography, and collage. Many of the portraits and group are from people I have met and experienced along my journey. The compositions reflect the current situations or issues of the world, the human experience, and the black experience. I am proud that many of my works have been collected by museums and significant collectors around the nation and internationally.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Chicago in the 6os and 70s which shaped my thoughts on divided communities, racism, inequality and justice issues. I unfortunately saw and experienced issues in my community that just was not fair or just, like schools, jobs, housing and economics. We always had a less than other school in some communities, housing issues was a problem and it really made me want to to be a teacher. I feel education is the key to changing the trajectory of our youth and the way they might view life.
My interest is to better the lives of others, to create positive change, and to be an example to young people living with other races and nationalities and broaden the scope of understanding. This was my interest then and now, this is why through my art hopefully it will activate change.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.timdavisart.com and www.invisionsarts.com
- Instagram: @timdavisart and @invisionsarts
- Facebook: @invisionsart
- Youtube: International visions gallery
