We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tobias Fike a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tobias, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I think most of life is a risk. When you can’t know the future, every decision could be looked at as a risk. We can access the risk factor most times and steer clear of things that seem too risky, but it is part of our daily lives.
It is hard to say how often I take risks and to what degree they are but I do push myself to take them. As an artist who works within various disciplines, I am interested in different ways of making so I like to challenge myself to learn new skills, or see certain ideas through. Sometimes this is putting myself out there in uncomfortable ways. Part of my art practice includes performance, and as someone who was extremely shy as a child, every live performance I do feels scary. However, I am drawn to performance art because I do feel uneasy but push through it and the energy from having an audience watch while you express yourself, can be very rewarding. It would certainly be much easier for me to only make other kinds of work but I have a compulsion to push my art making into new spaces and experiences. I can’t exactly say where that comes from or why.
Tobias, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Like for so many creative people, my life has been a journey. Certainly, professionally that has been the case. I was always interested in doing something creative from a young age. By the time I got to college I was unsure about what I wanted to pursue but had an interest in film at that time. I ended up studying photography as part of a Bachelors of Art Degree. When I finished, I was still unclear about any profession so I began freelancing as a photographer, videographer, and graphic designer. I did that for several years and did ok with it but I didn’t feel fulfilled. I decided to go back to school and get an MFA. That decision really helped me develop and become the artist I am today. I was able to truly understand my passion for art making and build a community with my fellow classmates. I realized this is where I belonged. I kept my freelancing alive during grad school but I was also able to student teach so when I graduated I began teaching at a local art college. That journey has had its own twists and turns but I am still doing it and have embraced it as part of my creative self. My individual art practice is something that I have kept going during all this time. I have stayed active with it by continuing to make work, regardless of exhibitions or a determined outcome. There were years where I just made work for myself in a basement. However, that constant production has lead to exhibitions and a variety of professional opportunities.
As for the artwork itself, I take a micro/macro approach. I deal with the cosmos and that vastness by doing things like creating constellations on the side of a box by poking holes in it and placing a light inside. I also look at deeply personal topics and my own existence for subject matter. For example, having +60 family members clap to my heartbeat or removing a specific amount of earth from the land to reference a friends death. With these works, I aim to still find the universally human experiences such as life and death.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think all people are creative one way or another. Mostly, they are either told they aren’t at some point, or they just decide they aren’t. That said, most people who are not within the arts might have a hard time understanding the desire to do some of the things we do, and often for little or no money. It typically comes from a drive that is hard to explain. I can’t always say what compels me, but it does seem to be a compulsion. I believe I’m driven to make my work because it is the most natural way for me to communicate and express myself. People want to share and connect and art is the best way, that I have found, to allow me to do those things.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think artists need to be better valued overall. There is always a stigma that art making is just a hobby. There is very little funding for artists and art institutions out there. Collectors can help sustain some artists but there aren’t enough of them and that doesn’t work for all types of artists. Just going and supporting art galleries, museums, and especially artist run spaces and projects can go a long way. Sharing resources can be a big help as well. I recently co-curated a series of three pop-up shows in a taxidermy classroom one day each month they didn’t have a class in there. It was very generous for the owners to give us access and the opportunity for artists to show in a unique space was exciting for them and the audience. The turnout and result, was very positive.
Contact Info:
- Website: tobiasfikeart.com
- Instagram: @tobiasfike