It’s Saturday night and the Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona is packed with customers.  A rock band is playing and amidst the crowd I’m trying to find Timothy Kehoe, a young artist and Sedona resident.

I have seen some of his art work displayed here and at Tamale Mama’s Café.  Its simplicity of forms and bright colors are reminiscent of the Post-World War II Abstract Expressionism.  Kehoe describes his works as “purely abstract” and influenced by Minimalism and Transcendentalism.      

His abstract images, stripped down to their most elemental expression, use a limited number of colors and geometric designs that follow the style of Art Minimal. The role of the imagination and of the subconscious is stressed in his art as it transcends real experiences in order to attain a higher plane of knowledge—which he calls “love and energy.”

These aesthetic visual perceptions naturally bring to mind the non-representational art of Abstract Expressionists, namely, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko.  

Without even being aware of Abstract Expressionism, Kehoe realized that his own work resembles Mark Rothko’s stacked rectangles. He discovered Rothko’s art studying the rebel painters of the 1950s and he was stunned by their similar painting styles.

I finally spotted Timothy Kehoe—Timmy, as his friends call him—among the crowd at the pub. He is a tall, young man born in 1980 in Indiana. His long dreadlocks round out his casual appearance as he gently moves wearing a friendly smile.

We try to find a quiet place for the interview without much success. However, the loud music and the cacophony of voices is the way Timmy likes it, since that is the environment in which he normally interacts. He looks comfortable, his voice is paused and assertive and his blue eyes spark with passion when he talks about his art.

He says that he arrived in Sedona almost by accident in March 2004, when a close friend convinced him to move into town. “Sedona is artistic in every sense,” he muses. Kehoe began painting about ten years ago and he estimates that he has produced approximately 150 paintings that are displayed throughout the United States, of which 40 he has given away.

His untitled abstracts are showcased on unframed canvas chiefly using acrylics. Some of his abstracts display organic elements such as feathers and leaves.  “I love finding objects in nature to my canvas,” he says smiling.

Kehoe and other artists organized what they called “Gumption Fest” on Coffee Pot Drive. The event gathered for the first time over 80 musicians, poets, artists, performers, film makers, dancers and vendors who performed or displayed their art at Oak Creek Brewery, Devi Yoga, Tamale Mama’s, Sedona Books & Music, and Light Vibe Performing Arts. The purpose of Gumption Fest is to disseminate the works of Sedona resident artists, and Kehoe envisions it as an annual celebration.

Sedona is predominantly a tourist town, and young artists such as Timothy Kehoe find it hard to survive financially. He has to struggle between two non-art related jobs in order to pay his bills.  I ask him whether he views art as a way to make a living.

T.K.:  No, of course not.  My art is me. My art is always with me no matter where I go. As an artist, it is not about making money. It's about doing what your passion is, and getting it out there, and having an individual to appreciate it. To make a living out of my art is a fine line because if you sell it, you're selling your soul, you sell yourself.

For me, since I’m a male, it's like giving birth.  It's giving away my creation, what I’m producing… it’s so tough.  But, as an individual who is an artist and wants to make money out of his art, you have to come to terms with this. I love what I do, and I’m very happy to produce my art, especially because my art is out there in people’s homes.

M.S-B: What do you think about Sedona’s art milieu?

T.K.:  For a small community, Sedona is overwhelmingly full of artists, painters, sculptors, musicians...all of that.  But there’s not enough venues to sell different types of art because it's primarily a tourist town. The tourists come out here and they want to see Southwest art, a Southwest landscape, or a beautiful sunset.  In my humble opinion there are three or four galleries in town that have decent work.

But I like Abstract, I like Minimalism, I like Transcendentalism... I like art work, real art, you know. I appreciate something creative, where someone has enough passion, enough love, and enough confidence to express it on the canvas. Most of the art you get to see displayed in Sedona is very much cheesy Southwest art.  At least create something that has not been seen before. That’s what it's all about. Because if something is art, in my humble opinion, it shines. That’s what matters. It’s the energy and the love you throw into it that shines out of it.

M.S-B: Right now the United States is at war, and Sedona as a tourist hub is removed from that.  Do you see your work as a means to express political statements?

T.K.:  I don’t even want to get into that… or I haven’t got into that as an artist, because I don’t have the confidence to actually show my opinion on something like that.  I’m still learning, I’m still gathering, I’m still forming my opinions of what I think. That’s why I leave my work open enough to the pure subjectivity of what people may see.

Of course I do have my opinions.  Right now my work is saying “be free”… I definitely say that. But I have so much more to say. Eventually, I definitely see myself creating some critical pieces, but I’m not there yet.

M.S-B: What’s your philosophy of art? Of life?

T.K.:  Live, learn, grow, spread.  If you live, you're learning, if you learn you’re growing and if you grow what’s next but to spread the knowledge that you have. If you can do that, if you continue in the cycle and opening yourself up, you are giving that to the rest of the human race. 

M.S-B: Today was Gumption Fest, an event that you and other people organized for the first time at Coffee Pot Road. Your work was exhibited outside Tamale Mama’s Café, and I’ve seen some of your work at Oak Creek Brewery. What do you think about art galleries?

T.K.: Well, I have an opinion about galleries. First of all let me say that I want to own and run a gallery someday because I am an artist and there are so many individuals around that are artists too, and I want to display their work. Here in Sedona galleries take a 45% commission on average now… ten years ago they took 20%. The galleries are the ones who make art so expensive.

I prefer to sell my art directly to the individual. If I put my work in a gallery, I wouldn’t know who has my piece.

The artists that displayed their stuff for sale today did it not with an expectation of what they would get, but just to have it out there, to display it, to show what they do. And that’s beauty.

M.S-B: What are your sources of inspiration? What moves you to paint? What is the message you want to convey?

T.K.:  All would be the same one thing, love. Love comes with everything, love is the only thing that really is. You have to love yourself enough to have the confidence within yourself to trust your intuition to create whatever you believe you have. That could be art, counseling individuals or whatever you do. Everything moves me… nature moves me… I’m inspired by everything. 

M.S-B: Talking about the future, what is your vision for your work and for yourself?

T.K.: Eventually I will have my own gallery to display my art work and the work of other artists I know.  But it's not going to be in Sedona. This town can’t support me and it won’t happen here. There is not an audience for it.

It’s a beautiful spot here, I really love it… but I can’t make it happen, personally. I can do it in New York or on the West Coast… I can’t do it here. If I would have the capital to do it here, it wouldn’t be worth it. Starting any business you have to understand the first year will be very tough if you can make it. In Sedona it doesn’t take one year. You have to have the capital to survive for a minimum of five years and then maybe make a profit after that.

However, I love it here. I’ve been here for two years now. It’s beautiful.  I know what ideally I want to do: open a studio space, coffee shop style during the day, displaying artists coming in constantly, a bar at night and I am living upstairs.

Contact Information: (574) 457-9410
e-mail: timmyk@myrealbox.com

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