Profile of the Week: Tyler Tilley

Tyler Tilley’s work captures raw emotion and unconscious thoughts. Experimenting with art throughout his entire life, in his twenties he turned it into a career. His newest body of work aims to “create new gods”.

What do you like to listen to while you paint? The work I’m into right now requires stimulation and even some aggression. I’m leaning into a lot of intense podcasts/discussions. Perhaps the radical opinions of others stirs me up. I can steal from these feelings. As far as music is concerned, these were the last few bands on my playlist: cass mccombshoney honeyfuture islands

What is your first memory of being introduced to art and why does it have importance today? The life changing collision I had with art was with my late younger brother. 11 years ago, he brought home a large canvas and a hand full of cheap paints. ”We need to paint this and sell it to the rich,” he said. I haven’t looked back.

Can you give us a walk through of your creative process? This is honestly hard to answer. My work needs to be undeniable. So I regularly ask myself: How can I succeed at this? What concepts would I stand behind and what will make an impact? What will support the vision and simply what do I want to paint? Often stories are relied upon in order to sell work. I am looking to avoid this. Another element to the process is in incubating ideas for a while. But really my mind just doesn’t stop.

What stories or messages do you wish to tell through your creations? It really started with reviewing the ’gods’ we idolize today. They seem to be failing us. Subtitling the latest body of work, “creating new gods, the old ones are useless.” I will add Covid-19 has had a major roll in this direction as well. I felt like someone needed to step up and recreate gods for worship based on the current times. Or at least offer some new and improved options. assigning myself to the task would make me a bit of a megalomaniac. I’ve heard it said, ”absolute narcissism +crippling self-doubt = art”. But nonetheless, maybe we would have better luck with some new direction.

Do you have any particular goals for the future, what’s next? Really want to hold onto this style for a while. In the past, and really for the last decade, I’ve always jumped around with one style to the next. when i launched in to this premise, i made a promise to my mom that i would stay with this direction for as long as i could. so I’m excited to see where this can lead me. the key word here is excitement. and right now im still deep into this vision. the brain is a beautiful thing.

FRONTRUNNER online forum: @tylertilley
Website: http://www.tylertilley.com
Instagram: @tylertilleylovesyou