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An artist who enjoys the creative process, from start to finish

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Torin Andersen
/
KMUW

We know that artists express themselves in a finished work of art. But Tim Stone takes that a step further and finds meaning in the process he uses to produce a painting. For this month’s ArtWorks, Torin Andersen visited Stone at his studio in Henrion Hall at Wichita State University.


Stone explains: "I'm very inspired by process and very interested in like how something is made. So I encounter something at the end and dissect it to the beginning."

Tim Stone paints dreamscapes based on experiences he’s trying to digest. But first, he needs to make the canvas for his paintings.

"You gotta create kind of a sharp beveled edge. So I turn the saw to 20 degrees."

Stone measures and cuts wood to prepare for stretching canvas over.

"I have to set the saw at the 45 degree angle."

"Well, I'm putting together the strainer for the inevitable painting. So it's kind of the skeletal structure of the painting. So I lay out my corner clamps, hopefully on a flat surface. And the first step is to kind of put it together with wood glue. Then put the screws into it."

Once the strainer is fastened, the canvas needs to be prepped.

"You need to rip the canvas to size and instead of trying to cut it, you just kind of hold it down."

Torin Andersen
/
KMUW

Stone then fastens the canvas down with staples.

"Try to pull it tight."

Stone says, when making art, process can convey philosophy.

"The reason I don't paint the sides is because a painting is kind of about the illusion for me, right? It's about this experience created from a physical material, but now you're experiencing something else with it. If you paint the sides, you're putting a lot of attention to the fact that like you've created an object. And my work's not about the creation of objects, right?"

After the gesso has dried on the canvas Stone is ready to apply the paint.

"Any of the oil based media can't be used before the water or plastic type based medias. So I'll often start with acrylic and lately I've been using quite a bit of spray media."

Sometimes Stone uses a large palette knife sometimes for bigger paintings.

"This is just like, kind of, smoothing out big fields of paint and of color. Sometimes you need like bigger tools to create bigger scales."

"It's a constant evolution based on like the ideas I want to present and the feelings I'm having. You know, thinking about this holistic experience for someone coming to that show and what are they going to experience and does it connect with what you are experiencing creating the work? Right. It's my way to like understand the world around me."

He has more than 20 years of experience shaping and documenting the arts in Wichita.