We were lucky to catch up with Tim Hutchings recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tim , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
Well it has been a forty year journey to get to the place I am now, and truly earning a full-time living doing what I love as a creative. To be honest where I am now was in no way on my radar in the beginning as I had no idea what I’m doing now existed. I did my first commissioned portrait sitting in art class in high school and for the next 30 plus years did mostly commissioned portrait work as my artistic career. Now I must clarify that during most of those 30 years my art was only a part of my career path as I was also a carpenter and for 20 of those years a private investigator, bodyguard and occasional bounty hunter. All of these endeavors made up my income with each one being the primary source at different times. I also have added children’s book author to the mix some years ago, but have yet to publish any of my works. My life has been anything but normal and I really planned it that way from the beginning. I have always lived by the moto of you have to make the most of life and pursue as much as you can and I have. So with that all being said, what has really captured my passion in the past fifteen years is LEGO®. My mother-in-law gave my son and I a set each for Christmas in 2010 and I had no idea how life changing that would be. From the beginning of my LEGO® journey I could tell this would become my new artistic medium as I have been able to truly explore many of the art principles of color and lighting and storytelling with these little pieces of plastic. I have even done a lecture at a fine art museum that I called “Painting with Brick”. So to keep it relatively brief as my journey progressed, I discovered clubs and then conventions and in 2023 I was blessed to be picked as a contestant on the Fox tv show LEGO® Masters and that has made my creative journey blossom into a full-time living. I currently get to attend conventions all over the United States doing guest appearances and selling my LEGO® creations or MOCs as they are known (My Own Creation). I am working hard to take this little bit of celebrity or at least getting in front of thousands of people to hopefully showcase my children’s books, my art and several other projects I have been working on these past years. Mainly because the personal appearances will not be a forever thing, but I hope to lay the ground work for all of these other projects to continue to support me into my old age. I am currently 57 so instead of planning retirement, I am forging a new career that will I believe bring me great joy until whatever comes next. I have found that I absolutely love meeting and talking to people and hopefully inspiring them in all ways to be creative and follow their hearts as I have. It has not been easy and the money has not been great for most of those years, but I’m seeing a great difference in that as I pursue this current path.
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?
So some of this I mentioned in my previous answer, but I definitely want to fill in the holes and share as much of myself as I can. So I am a very small town boy. I grew up in a small town in western Kansas, maybe a hundred people, where probably half the town was related to me. I had both sets of grandparents, one great grandmother and a host of uncles, aunts and cousins just blocks away. Now this is important because it was such an awesome childhood that so many and especially the kids now days couldn’t even imagine. It really was a great way to grow up and so much inspiration for what my life would become. Now my Dad and brother like me were able to draw anything we saw with great accuracy and this just kind of started the idea that my future was to be an artist. I also had so many wonderful art teachers throughout grade school and high school that encouraged and inspired me to pursue graphic design in college. My parents also were very supportive and in fact my mother probably kept me doing art during the years I just really didn’t want to do art as she was always having me do portraits for everyone near and far. I also discovered during my early college years that I really didn’t want to work for someone else especially companies and so started my journey as an entrepreneur working mostly as a self-employed person for most of my 40 year work career. I have had to take on regular jobs for brief periods of time, but soon into those jobs realized it just wasn’t for me to work a regular 9 to 5 job. Even during my private investigation days, I had my own agency 3 times in two different states and worked as an independent agent for many others firms while doing my own thing too. I truly love working with my hands whether it be with an artistic medium or in carpentry or really anything. I enjoyed many years of doing custom carpentry and although I don’t do much of it now, I just have a decent workshop in my garage. What was kind of funny about that is most of my work was for fellow fine artists. I made custom cabinets, easels and all kinds of crazy creations out of wood to make their work easier. I guess that is why the LEGO® has become my medium of choice as I get to use artistic principles with color and design but also use bricks and pieces to actually build something 3D. So all that being said what my life is today is so far away from all that and I really feel like I have found my purpose. I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to have things I build and create inspire so many others. The true joy is in the smiles of the kids I meet all the time that see my creations or have seen me on the show. That too is something I never would have thought I would love doing, but being on the tv show was just so rewarding in every way. It truly was something I could do every day. My fellow cast members and the entire production crew were just fantastic to work with. I still miss them and it has been two years since we started filming the show. For me it has become about the interaction with my fellow humans and how to share my creativity with everyone I meet. So today, I currently am doing my personal appearances as not only LEGO® conventions, but other creative type events and even museums. My love of the wild west has led me to create a large wild west display out of LEGO® parts that shows not only the beauty of the landscape, but also the history of how the wild west developed and the people that made it happen. I also am a content creator with a YouTube channel, Tim’s Brick Adventures where I talk about all things LEGO and do some interviews with many in the LEGO community. I have a line of LEGO building kits that I developed and sell during my appearances. I have Christmas story that I created using LEGO that I promote as something I hope everyone enjoys year after year. Bodybuilding has been a passion of mine since I was 13 and I currently have a line of t-shirt designs that I have developed and have been trying to promote for several years called Big Cat Gym. I sincerely hope that anyone that gets to know me or meets me sees the pure joy I have of having lived a life pursuing all my dreams and passions whether they led to success or not. I say this because even the failures or pursuits no longer followed have all led me to where I am today. I have battled depression and low self esteem since I was in high school and event today there are times when I struggle, but at the end of the day I have kept moving forward and each day brings new hope and excitement that the struggle was useful and had purpose. I also want to try my hand at motivational speaking as I feel I have learned a lot and would love to helps others as the battle their demons. There is just so much and I know this will probably be a short article, but hopefully there will be some great nuggets that are useful in all of this.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
As I mentioned previously, I struggle with depression and self esteem issues that stemmed from just not feeling I belonged in this world and had no idea of where I fit in. One of many great books that truly helped me find some clarity and meaning were “Conversation with God” by Neale Donald Walsch. Lately, I have truly found help in Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work in meditation and quantum physics. Meditation in general has been a great tool in helping me find my way to success and just living a fuller life.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I absolutely love that something I create whether in physical form or story form can impact another’s life in so many wonderfully positive ways. The joy you see in another’s eyes from something I did just is a gift like no other. Right now I have the absolute pleasure of spending many weekends meeting and talking to hundreds maybe thousands of new people I’ve never met before, but finding that they are just friends and extended family I hadn’t met yet and getting to connect with them on a personal level and share my story and learn theirs and hopefully encourage and inspire them as they do me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://timothyhutchings.myportfolio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timsbrickadventures
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timsbrickadventures/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-hutchings-625a6026/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@timsbrickadventures
- Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Tigerspy67/shop?asc=u My bodybuilding sportswear
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/tim-hutchings/shop A source to purchase my art on many items
