Tim Spelios is a Ridgewood, Queens based artist and musician. In addition to his collage and sculpture work, he has performed extensively as a member of numerous bands and collectives. He founded Flipside gallery with Caroline Cox.

Question:

Your studio work ranges from collage to sculpture.  You have also worked as a professional musician and your have a business as a high end cabinet maker.  Could you discuss the relationships you see between your music, your craftwork and your art practice?

Answer:

Most artists in New York wear an assortment of hats … unless you’re a master of compartmentalization everything you do gets a little mooshed together. Cross pollination is a good thing … sometimes you can’t get out of the day-job/rational work head and that impacts your art process or there’s the flip side when an undisciplined free associative/improvising mode of music and visual artmaking filters into the cabinetmaking, and that’s OK, it keeps it all unpredictable. The mooshed hats might be less efficient but who cares at this point? I really just want to constantly be making stuff with too many projects going on simultaneously.

Let’s say I’m in the studio cutting up found photos and it’s going nowhere but maybe the sound of the scissors or something that I’m I’m listening to gets me to start making noise with a waste can and then I stumble onto great drum beat … going nowhere gets you somewhere. I try to keep it loose and not too serious, the minute you start thinking what you’re doing is important, it’s the kiss of death. Self conscious artmaking, PU.  It’s such a gift to make anything you want, just cut loose and follow your impulses.

timspelios.com

pocket flap, 2015, 6×4″

headlamp, 2015, 6×4″

meet the peas, 2015, 6×4″

One Question/One Answer is a series of very, very brief conversations about art and life between Romanov Grave and a variety of extraordinarily interesting artists.