Timothy J. Segar

My work in sculpture is based in the investment of form with identity and character. I am concerned with evoking the posture, the lean, the physical presence, of figures, of living forms as well as that of buildings and machines. I have an enduring fascination with the edge of my pieces as it both opens and closes the form.  I’m after a core of animate expression that stirs in the viewer a sense that they are being reflected.

I am involved in both single pieces and groupings. I have been interested in how several sculptures can go together to make up an entity which is distinct from the individuals that make up the group. I continue to work for the autonomy of each piece while finding its place within a group. These groupings are not so much installations as theaters of actors whose settings change with each showing. The viewer is asked to supply a great deal. The theatrical moment that I work for should not be thought of as clearly defining a particular narrative of human activity. Rather I hope it contains many moments, a collection of dramas. The viewer is asked to bring his or her own story and find it there.

Drawing holds a nearly equal place in my artistic attention. I , like many sculptors, draw for different ends: plan, structure, re-appraisal, close observation. I am at varying distances from my objects making other objects in the bargain. While my sculpture is solid separate, definite, real, practical and actual, my drawing is often light, open, weightless, mutable, and imaginary. These drawings represent a kind of parallel world to that of the sculpture, reflecting it coming before or after. I am engaged in the crucial place where my imagination makes contact with both two and three dimensional ideas.

I have exhibited my work regularly throughout the Northeast, in California and in France. Recently, I showed my work at the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 2008, and at the Open Square in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 2009. At the latter I presented work entitled “Almost Machines,” geared and wheeled sculptures that are kinetic, or appear to be. In 2010,  I had an exhibit that used some of the same wood-bending techniques but presented forms that became surfaces on which to draw.

In 2007,  I collaborated with theater professor Paul Nelsen and music professor Stan Charkey to initiate the Summer Arts Intensive program, a summer semester focused on experiential learning both here in Marlboro and in London. Over a period of seven weeks, students attended more than 80 museums, concerts, films, plays, operas, ballets and artists’ studios, culminating with independent projects in the medium of their choice.

In 2005 and again in 2009, I led a trips to central Vietnam with several students to study the architecture, sculpture and culture of Champa, a Hindu kingdom prominent in the region for 16 centuries until the 1800s. Since returning I have lectured on this subject locally and in Northampton, Massachusetts.