2. Who is Betsy Timmer
• Betsy Timmer is a three dimensional artist.
• She lives and works in Lawrence Kansas.
• Timmer received her MFA from the University of
Kansas and her BFA from Western Michigan
University in Kalamazoo Michigan.
3. Artist’s Statement
Art often functions as a powerful lens, examining
and scrutinizing the culture that creates it. It can
magnify different situations and bring problems
into crisp focus. Art can call attention, ask
questions, clamor for change, or provide an escape
from reality. Artists are furled by the culture in
which they live and each make individual
contributions based on their personal experiences
and unique points of view.
4. The realizations of my connection to my culture and my
role in recording it is empowering. My works are rooted
in the non-stop, bigger, better, faster culture of excess in
which I find myself daily. It is about stress, hurry, and
busyness. I am concerned with pressure-more specifically
the pressures facing women. I see women all around me
struggling to fill several demanding roles simultaneously.
Women are expected to be beautiful objects, caring
mothers, supportive wives, diligent homemakers, and
productive workers.
5. Is choosing one role over another simply settling for less
or accepting failure? Is striving to fulfill all expectations
realistic? Where do these goals come from? What
happens if we don’t attain them all? Or if we do? I am
inspired by endless to-do lists, piles of emails, constantly
ringing cell phones, seventy-hour workweeks,
multitasking nightmares, endless dieting, and the loom
feeling that there is not enough time. My work is about
feeling tired, tense, weighted down, torn, overstuffed,
frustrated, dissatisfied, and out of breath.
6. For me, these concerns take the form of mixed media
sculptures. I use fabric, felt, clay, and found objects to
create characters with which the viewer can both
sympathize and empathize. Often the pieces are worn
and pathetic, victims of overuse. Others divulge their
constant struggle and frustration. Some are vulnerable
and uncomfortably exposed. Personalities are revealed
through puckers, rips, patches, stains, and other
imperfections. Each piece I create relies on nagging
familiarity and subtle humor to call attention to and to
criticize the demanding culture in which we live.
7. Philosophy
• Timmer’s art reflects a feminism perspective but she
wishes not to be seen as a hard core feminist.
• She said that her art reflects feminism because she can
only work with the feelings she knows. She does not hate
men and is not one sided.
• Timmer wants to portray the feminine struggles of body
image, shape, getting married, etc. At the same time, she
believes and hopes her work can also be understood and
enjoyed by men.
8. Inspiration
• Timmer is inspired mostly by personal experiences.
Her goal is to try to respond to life trends.
• She finds art in everyday objects. Timmer stated,
“When I talk to a friend I analyze every word,
when I walk down the street I analyze and am
inspired by every shape and color. Then I morph
these words and shapes into my art and the ideas
change based on the medium I am working with.”
9. Development of ideas
• Similar to the was her inspirations help to develop
her ideas, her art develops as new materials are
add.
• Each new piece of worn material or found objects
gives the piece a new direction. The shape and size
tends to lead her in a direction that was not visible
previously.
10. Technique
• Timmer uses armatures, wax, felt, mixed media such
found objects and old clothing.
• She uses a technique know as felting to create her “sugar
coated” figures.
• Timmer’s are is created to be non-permanent.
• This painstaking process involves taking raw wool and
poking it with a jagged needle to interweave the threads
in order to condense the wool into a desired form.
27. Questions 1
Considering Betsy Timmer’s artist statement and
her feeling about women, why do you think that
almost all of her work shown is presented in off
white and pale colors?
28. Question 2
Keeping in mind that Timmer wants her
dominantly feminine work to relate to both sexes,
what kind of insight or feelings do you feel her
work provokes in the minds of men?
