your town, any town… your name here
By tiina.l
The word “movement” as a verb and noun runs a common thread
with the beats, skaters, surfers and punks alike.
Skater-artist-producer/engineer-musician Tim Kerr, known for the legendary
1980s Austin punk band Big Boys, is exhibiting at Antisocial Skate Shop this
November. This thread runs, like a series of dots marked out on roadmap. What
connects it all? “DIY connects it all. DIY started all of these movements
before they got tagged with names, uniforms and a set of dos and don’ts,” says
Kerr. Beat writer Jack Kerouac’s original version of On the Road was typed on a
continuous roll of teletype paper.
“I got the image of Kerouac typing on a big roll of paper,
so I had a thought about painting on a roll of paper and going around a room
with it. This seemed like a good place to try that. If someone likes a piece on
the roll when the show is over, that section gets cut out for them. It’s mostly
a series of pieces on the roll but sometimes things start interconnecting. I
really like to fill spaces up so I will be bringing other things to go around
the room as well, which will include books and originals. I sign everything
‘your name here’ as a sort of call to anyone looking to see who did the art. The
idea being that you too can and should be doing some sort of self-expression….
‘The Your Town, Any Town’ is a take on the old Dogtown skates. I have friends
that would change the logo to say ‘Your Town’ instead of ‘Dog Town’. Once a
skater, always a skater,” explains Kerr with a smile in his tone.
The paintings have primitive and freeform quality and are
significant as they reveal a snapshot of the subject and social statement. “I
paint what I paint because of the realization that we all influence people and
most times have no idea. Someone could see the shoes you have on and really
like them, then go out and buy a pair for themselves and you just influenced
that person,” he exclaims. “When I started to get asked to show art again I
decided that I really wanted to try and be a positive influence. I started
painting people that had influenced me by their actions, words, music, etc. If
someone wanted me to do a painting for them, my first question was/is ‘who
influenced you?’ By doing this, I also learned about that person asking, and
many times the person they wanted me to paint.”
The philosophy of the ‘self-expression movement’ ties in
with the art practice. “DIY or Do It Yourself is just that… Do It Yourself.
There will always be people that take it on themselves to do something creative
in a way that THEY want to do something, and if people like it and become
involved, you have yourself a community. I am humbled and proud of the good
people [that] write about the bands I have been in, but the Big Boys played
funk music because we liked it, not because we thought it might start
something. Poison 13 is said to have been one of the bands that
influenced/started Grunge. We were just playing blues and ‘60s garage music
that we liked. Nobody here in Austin at the time liked what we were doing and
that made it even more fun (big smile). The point is, walk your walk and if you
are really lucky, you might just plant some seeds in others. Everyone I paint
is living proof of that statement,” Kerr explains.
Tim Kerr’s “Your Town, Any Town: Visual Thoughts” exhibit
opens Thursday
November 1 at Antisocial Skateboard Shop (2337 Main Street).
