We were lucky to catch up with Tim Ward recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tim, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?
My maternal grandfather has been my hero my entire life. While I did have an excellent father growing up, my grandfather was always my main influence on what it means to be a man and a good human.
I was the first born grandchild, so I was always a bit more spoiled than the rest of the grandkids, but I was, also, one to help them out whenever needed and worked with my grandfather in his business of installing lightning protection on buildings. Working and spending leisure time with my grandfather allowed me to see how to treat people, whether in business or life in general, because it is the right thing to do. He, also, taught me the meaning and value of hard and honest work. Everything I do in life always has a background thought of if grandpa would be proud of what I’m doing. I’m proud to say that I’m sure that most of my actions and choices have made, and continue to make, him proud.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I have always been interested in being creative, some of the first ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up that I can remember are being a photographer or writer. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow those dreams as I grew up. I grew up in a small town in Northern New York and didn’t know of anyone who wrote or was a professional photographer, so I didn’t see how it would be possible. So, I just followed in the examples that I saw around me, people like my father and grandfather, who just worked hard to support their family and forgot about those early ideas.
It wasn’t until long into my adult life that I started tapping into my creative side again. I started writing poetry while I was enlisted in the Navy. It was a way to escape from the day to day life and stress that comes with living on an aircraft carrier surrounded by thousands of people. I wasn’t writing with the idea of trying to get my work published, it was just for myself and a way to deal with life. I still write poetry regularly and was lucky enough to have one of my pieces read live on the Sway in the Morning show on SiriusXM by one of the cohosts, Tracy G. I have since started writing short horror stories with the hopes to turn them into a podcast in the future. I do my writing under the pen name Miles Shipman.
After I got separated from the Navy, I bought a entry level camera to play around with and found myself wanting to learn more and more about photography. I took a few online courses, watched tons of YouTube videos, and practiced a ton and found myself enjoying it more and could see that I was improving. I still haven’t pursued photography as a full-time profession, but I love it and will continue with it even if I never earn any more money doing it. Some of the models that I have worked with have went on to get modeling contracts with the help of my photos.
A handful of years ago I stumbled upon the idea of making miniature artificial koi ponds. I began scouring thrift stores around Jacksonville to find cute or interesting bowls, cup, and basically anything that can hold liquid. I turn those finds into koi ponds using artificial flowers and greenery, stones, hand painted koi fish molded out of resin, and clear resin as the “water” to hold everything in place. After a few people told me that they were good and suggested that I sell them, I opened an Etsy shop and began selling. Unfortunately, my Etsy shop didn’t sell very well, but I had found that in person sales were growing as I started selling at the Riverside Arts Market. Since I was working with resin already I expanded into making other resin based products like jewelry, trays, candle holders, incense burners, and coasters. My most popular sellers are still the koi ponds though, I have even developed some collectors.
Aside from the joy and pleasure that I get out of being creative in all aspects, it is the way my pieces make people feel that is really satisfying. After my poem was read on SiriusXM I received several messages that my piece helped them. I love capturing a beautiful moment on camera, especially when it is of people so they can have that moment forever. Nothing makes me feel better than seeing someone walk into my booth at the market for the first time and seeing their eyes go wide as a smile spreads across their face as they see the koi ponds that I created. I can still hardly believe that people like my creations, let alone enough to spend their money on them. I truly just want to give people a little joy with my creations.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The only goal that I have with my creations is to make people feel something.
When I am at the arts market selling my resin creations, especially the koi ponds, seeing the reactions that people get from them brings me so much joy. When someone walks into my booth for the first time and their eyes go wide and a smile spreads across their face as they realize what they are looking at means more to me than the money I get from them. I give personalized ponds to important people in my life as a small token of my appreciation.
With my photography I want to capture the world and people around us in a unique or beautiful way. Having someone tell me that they love the way they look in photos that I took or how they love how I captured a piece of the world around us means so much to me.
My writing runs the gamut from showing my feelings towards someone, to sharing my views on life, society, or politics, to making someone laugh with a nonsensical poem, to horrifying or disgusting them with my short horror stories.
Making people feel something is a major driving force in many of our lives and I just want to keep making people feel something through my creations and actions.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My adult life has been a wild swing from one end to the other. At one point in my early to mid 20s I was barely making enough money to make ends meet and was days away from being homeless at one point. I knew that I couldn’t get back into school because of money owed for past schooling and that was piling up on other debts. My life was going no where fast and I didn’t have much joy in my life or hope for the future.
So, at 26 I decided to enlist in the Navy. I had to lose more than 60 pounds in about six months in order to enlist, but I worked hard and accomplished it. While I didn’t end up making a career out of the Navy, I used the eight years I served to turn my life around. Life still isn’t perfect and it hasn’t been smooth sailing the entire time, but my life is in a good place now and it all started by deciding that I needed a drastic change and made it happen.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @humancanvascreations, @miles.shipman.writes
Image Credits
Jonathan Daniel
Tim Ward