Works
Artist Bio
Born on Indian Island, Tim Shay started making three-dimensional work with coaching from his father, Pat Shay, and his friend Stan Neptune during the late 1970s. In 1984 Shay enrolled at the Institute of American Indian Arts of Santa Fe and majored in 3-D arts. He graduated with an Associate of Fine Arts degree and remained in Santa Fe until 2004, working and living from his art. He received awards for his work while in college and later in professional shows in the Southwest.
In 2004 Shay returned to Maine to continue in the arts. He lives and works on Indian Island. He has shown in regional shows and galleries and has created public artworks in Maine, including commissions at the Portland Children’s Museum, Katahdin Woods and Waters Reception Center, and the Charles Norman Shay Native American Veterans Memorial Park, Omaha Beach Normandy, France. “As an artist, it is important for me to acknowledge the cultural lineage and the creativity that is innate to my people.”
Artist's Statement
"The concept of Line Totem comes as a design with no preliminary sketches or modeling, it is done with total spontaneity of line. There is no measurement of the lines. The lines are cut into a rectangular stone on the flat surface to create shadow in combinations of parallels of twos and threes diagonal, vertical, and horizontal. Once I have gone from top to bottom around all four sides we have a work that cannot be recreated except by measurement or a casting process. This concept reflects the power of line not just in art but in our world as we know it today; as an example how we use line in our language, power lines, toe the line, line of thought, lines of speech on and on. We have had food lines of the great depression and unemployment lines that continue to grow; border lines that tell us where we can and cannot go, not to mention a question of how many wars have been created over lines, which brings to mind “Where do we draw the line?”—let us hope not at the end of the line. Line Totem shows me the power of creativity as its own entity to say that we as a species have the ability to recreate ourselves in a way that reflects outward that we may make the world a better place to just be and to be just."
