Tim O'Neill
Biographical Info I have been a studio artist for the past 33 years; I started my professional career as a studio furniture maker and a few years later I earned a BS (’99) and MFA (’05) in metalsmithing from UW-Madison. I have used these complimentary skillsets to create functional and sculptural artworks. In 2004 my wife, Theresa Abel, and I opened the Abel Contemporary Gallery which exhibits artists with national reputations along with the work of well-known local and emerging talent. Ten years ago, I reduced my role at the gallery to accept a full-time position as academic staff at the UW-Madison Art Department in the areas of sculpture, foundry and art metals. I work in the classroom alongside faculty guiding students through the process of making art with all its countless methodologies and material choices to help them bring their ideas to fruition. We instruct the students on the proper use of tools and equipment to build the necessary skills needed to become successful artists. One of the benefits of working at UW-Madison is that I am exposed to a myriad of new technologies and processes. These advancements show up in my work, such as 3-D printing designs that can be turned into cast bronze components for furniture, laser cutting leather for stool seats and CNC routed designs in wood panels. My past oeuvre consisted of three bodies of work; one of jewelry that comments on social political issues of contemporary life with an eye to traditional metalsmithing, another as functional furniture which is more in tune to design aesthetics of form and texture, and visual beauty of highly figured woods all presented with a contemporary sensibility, and lastly sculptural work that bring my foundry practice into focus highlighting the natural world such as modeled bronze cast crows. My most current body of work brings together these practices of jewelry making, furniture and sculpture. Albeit unusual, I have collaborated with a beaver, Castor Canadensis. While visiting a friend’s vacation property in central Wisconsin I surveyed the damage that a beaver afflicted onto his woodlot, in the debris I found a stripped tree branch that reminded me of Constantin Brancusi’s “Torso of a Young Man.” This wood scrap was the genesis of my new body of work. I took up where a beaver left. off and with a nod to Brancusi I created furniture, sculpture and imagined tools from the wooden remnants of a family of beavers making a winter lodge. The work stretched my skill set in a most delightful way- from the use of chainsaws to digital technologies. It also allowed me to think outside of my artistic comfort zone to respond to something that I wasn’t familiar with and to reimagine another world. I have worn many hats in my professional and academic career, but the one thing that I have consistently maintained is a vibrant studio practice which allows me to explore my thoughts and ideas. It is essential that I continue to challenge myself artistically, add to the existing knowledge base of skills and processes, and persistently strive to make poignant relevant art in this complicated world.
Level South Central Wisconsin Chapter
Membership Type Member