We recently connected with Tim Savy and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tim, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I remember painting with my 4 year old niece one time and just watching this innocent little human scribbling all over the paper, just zero f*cks. It was so perfectly imperfect. Because kids don’t give a shit about what other people think, so they can just draw and paint so unconditionally, it’s really cool to see, very beautiful and free. My favorite artist is Jean Michel Basquiat, and I love his work for the same reasons. There’s like absolutely no rules when you paint that way. And I loved the freedom behind that. That’s what makes it so fun.

I like painting about things I’ve experienced in life; poverty, wealth, love, loss, materialism, addiction, faith, etc. And the best way to paint those things for me is to be really expressive and loud with my work. I think color theory is very important too. I want people to feel some type of way through the colors I use. I take an expressionistic approach with my art. Every imperfection is what makes it perfect. All of the emotion is laid out on canvas; in the brush strokes, the paint splatter, the drips; it all has a purpose.

Tim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Tim Savy, I’m an artist from Seattle. I’ve been a professional painter for 7 years now. I’ve done it all independently with no management or anything. I have paintings all over the globe now in some very prominent homes and collections. I guess you could call my style of painting Neo-Expressionism? I don’t know, you tell me. I’m very inspired by artists like Jean Michel Basquiat, George Condo, etc. I love mixed media as well and I primarily use acrylic paint, spray paint, and just about anything I can get my hands on.

My life’s been pretty crazy, but In a good way. I guess the theme would be somewhere along the lines of redemption, perseverance, and the pursuit of happiness.

I could have easily gone a really bad route in life if I wanted to. Back in high school and through college I was a big heroin addict. I ended up getting in trouble and I was looking at prison time, lost my job, and just hit rock bottom. I got a second chance at life, and ended up getting Into real estate selling high end homes.

From there is where I found my passion for art and decided to peruse it full time. So 7 years ago, I quit my job, and have been painting ever since.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After I quit my real estate career to start taking painting more serious, it only took about a year before I depleted all of my savings and ended up homeless. I lived in the back of my Tahoe for 3 years just trying to make my dream happen.

There were times when I would be commissioned some really big paintings to be sent overseas or to some super wealthy clients in the states but I had nowhere to paint or the money to buy supplies, just absolutely nothing. Like “No chance dude, go back to the real world, this isn’t realistic, you’re gonna fail” But I would take the deal and just make it happen. I was that passionate about my vision for the future that I didn’t give a f*ck what circumstance I was in, I would make it happen.

There were times when I would paint in empty parking garages in the pouring rain, or even sometimes at the college campus I use to go to and sneak in to empty classrooms on weekends. Sometimes I’d paint in my storage unit with minimal space and light. Sometimes my friends would let me paint at their places. I just always made it happen, it was fun times, but it was really hard man.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I had a super famous A-list celebrity reach out to me on IG because they really liked my art and wanted a couple of my paintings. Even though I was homeless and had no where to paint, I took the deal anyways and made it happen.

I remember painting them on campus of the college I went to 10 years ago, and being kicked out of like 7 empty classrooms in 1 day by security.

When I finally finished them, I didn’t have the money to ship the paintings. It was like more than all the money to my name. So one of my best friends was like “let’s go on a f*ck*ng roadtrip!” So we packed a couple bags and the paintings, and drove all the way down to LA from Seattle and I only had like $100 to my name. We got to drop off the paintings directly to him at his house in LA, and ended up hanging out for hours with him on a Friday night just smoking weed and shooting the shit.

It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. And he really put me on too. That was a big turning point in my art career. He ended up doing a super cool post on his Instagram and it blew me up. I leveled up after that sale for sure. And because of his endorsement of my work, more celebrities inquired and I gained a lot of respect from prospective collectors when they saw that all the big name people were f*ck*ng with my art. It was really cool.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/artbytimsavy