[ Golden Gater Online - September 16, 1997 ]
Making it big in the art world takes more then a degree from SF State or any other university. In fact, it takes exceptional talent or unbelievable luck.
Tim Wicks is a talented painter who is still waiting for luck. Wicks, 36, graduated from SF State in 1989 with a degree in fine arts. He works odd jobs to pay for his South of Market apartment and to continue painting. He has done everything from parking cars to tending bars to flipping burgers, devoting all of his spare time to painting.
Wicks is not surprised his work has not been selling because he has never been concerned with making his art commercial. Many of his large scale paintings shock the viewer with their surreal personages, violent narrative and themes of social injustice. In fact, the very first water color he painted as a child was inspired by President Kennedy's assassination.
"Most people don't want to live with my paintings," Wicks said as he looks out the window of his studio, blowing out clouds of cigarette smoke. "My work is unpleasant to look at."
Wicks said he is not inspired by violence or social injustice but by the every-day struggle against them. He said he is continually amazed that people get out of bed each day, step over junkies and homeless on their way to jobs they hate and still manage to smile sometimes.
"There's a lot of pain in my paintings, but I try to portray it as beautifully as possible," Wicks said.
A large, square painting hangs over the staircase of Wick's apartment, checking out everyone who climbs the steep stairs. The painting, titled "Success," is from his "Seven Deadly Virtues" series.
"People think success means having huge houses and expensive cars and then they are still miserable," he said. "I regard myself as successful because I'm still painting."
Wicks is not alone in his struggle, said Paul Pratchenko, a professor of painting and drawing at SF
State who remembers Wicks as a highly motivated student and a good human being. Pratchenko said the chances of success in the art world are about a thousand to one.
"Most of the students know the score but they are in love with what they do," he said.
Wicks seems more prepared to embrace his fate as a struggling artist than to compromise his artistic integrity. He admits to thinking about compromise: "I can paint pretty flowers real well," he said. But he said he would not be honest with himself.
Despite the uneasy feeling Wicks has toward success and the idea of promoting his art, he manages to show his work about once a year. Last December Dylan's Bar on Folsom Street in San Francisco showed several of his works. Three years ago he gathered the slides of his favorite paintings and sent them off to galleries in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles just to hear a polite 'We are not interested at this time' response. Wick said the galleries are just not willing to take a risk.
One gallery that does take risks on unknown artists is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery. The gallery represents 1,300 artists whose work can be not only purchased but rented for a period of time with the option to buy. The gallery's director, Marian Parmenter, said more people are buying art compared to 20 years ago.
"The corporate world is really helpful," Parmenter said. "They buy and rent a lot of art work."
Thus far, Wicks has sold less then 10 paintings. He sold one painting this year, immediately using the money to repair the transmission on his truck.
Pratchenko, who knows first hand all the difficulties a struggling artist must endure, said it is important to look at opportunities in other areas like advertising, book publishing and digital imagery.
"Do not put all the eggs in one basket," he advises his students. "Of course, there is always teaching."
Wicks got his masters degree in Fine Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1993 with the specific intention of getting a teaching job. But the only openings he could find would force him to leave San Francisco, something he cannot imagine doing.
In the meantime, Wicks continues to paint in whatever free time his jobs allow him.
"I have to paint," he said. "When I stop painting, I get physically ill."