Art and Math

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I was certainly drawing and painting before I could read and write. That was my thing from early on. My own visual language developed over the years, not because I wanted to sell paintings… not even for the compliments I would get on what I created. It was my own means of expression, long before I had words to describe or explain the process or the meaning behind the images.

I thought I couldn’t do math. I never memorized my multiplication tables. All through elementary school, Jr. High and High School, even in to college, I believed that I COULD NOT do math. Then, as part of my nursing education, I had to take a math aptitude test. I thought “I might as well just quit now, because I can’t do math.” Then a college counselor shared a book with me called All The Math You’ll Ever Need. I took it home and read it cover to cover, and worked every equation in the book. Then I turned around and aced the test.

The big shock for me was when I realized that art is math. It’s all math. All the drawing I’d been doing my whole life was MATH!

My own misconceptions about myself held me back from achieving what I actually had the ability to do.

I do not want to allow fear to rule my life. I want to do those things that other people might think that I can’t do. More importantly, I want to step out of my comfort zone and do the things that I didn’t believe I could do.


Public Art

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Exerpt from the Cook County News Herald, May 9, 2015:

GRAND MARAIS A STATEWIDE MODEL FOR COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENTS

by Brian Larsen

Sitting on a couch in front of Hughie’s Tacos, Tim Young was minding his business as he waited for a truck to come take him and his newly found sofa away. He looked oddly out of place yet ever so comfortable.

But beware of where you sit in Grand Marais. Moving Matters Assista nt Coordinator Maren Webb spotted the unflappable artist and asked him to stand and explain the public art project he is creating to a group of 35-40 people who were on a walking tour of Grand Marais on Tuesday, April 28.

The group was made up of staff from projects funded by the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). They came from Red Wing, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Grand Rapids and they were in town to see firsthand the new outdoor designs and transportation improvements the community has made in nab effort to get residents off the couch and outside.

Young has been commissioned by one of the 13 organizations and businesses that received mini-grants from the 2015 Great Place Project. This summer he is going to paint and mount a locally themed mural on the walls of the Birchbark Books and Gifts. He pointed across the street to the large trout painted on the Coma Oil propane tank by Betsy Bowen and the ceramic wildlife mural elementary students made on the outside west wall of the Johnson’s Grocery as two examples of public art projects. (continued on page A7)