Interview
Tammy Flynn Seybold
Tammy Flynn Seybold, M.A.C., has worked as an art conservator in both museums and the private sector, and has become established as an accomplished figurative artist.
Tammy was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied fine art, art history and chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley. She achieved her Masters in Art Conservation at Queen's University, Canada.
As an Art Conservator, Tammy worked at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Art Gallery in Washington D.C., and The Art Gallery of Ontario. This experience was invaluable in her development as an artist, with exceptional knowledge of artists methods and techniques.
An avid ocean swimmer, snowboarder and hiker, Tammy is immersed in the subjects that inspire her own artwork. Having lived in California, France, Canada and Hong Kong, she has had the chance to witness both the sublime and the tragic in our relationships with mother nature.
Her background as an Art Conservator inspires her to work with challenging materials such as gold leaf, rare pigments and found objects. Reflection, opalescence and transparency are common themes in her work, emphasizing not only the exquisite, but the ephemeral nature of the natural world around us. Seybold is heavily influenced by the rich history of the San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement, and it informs much of her live model studies in oil.
Tammy's work has been exhibited in Toronto, Hong Kong and Vancouver. Her work was published in the January 2019 issue of British Vogue. She is currently living and creating her art in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I’ve worked as a paintings conservator for most of my career, restoring paintings. This thorough knowledge of painting materials and artist techniques informs my art, driving me to experiment with historic painting methods, and to work with a wide range of materials.
Unfortunately, I suffered an eye injury that required me to get a corneal transplant from a generous donor. I will be forever grateful that I can paint again, but I’m afraid my ability to carry out the extremely detailed and precise work of a paintings conservator has been hindered. Thankfully, I have my art practice, and I will continue to pursue my painting career with even more gratitude and energy.”
“The transformation theme is evident in my figurative works, such as in my Deliquesce series, where recumbent figures are seen to dissolve and drip down a white canvas.
In these works, I use paint as a metaphor for our creative and emotional energy, and acknowledging how, especially in these past few difficult years, many of us feel a drawing down, a draining of our creative spirit.”
What inspires you?
“I’ve long been inspired by the human figure and how it has been portrayed throughout history. Since I consider the mind and body to be one and the same, I feel the portrayal of the psyche to be an intrinsic part of figurative art. In fact, I believe the acknowledgement of, and attempt to portray, the mental state of an individual to be an essential part of respecting the subject. I believe it’s precisely this deeper exploration of the subject’s inner world that is lacking from the images we see of women; images which have been driven to simply appeal to the male gaze. These images appear superficial in the literal and figurative sense of the word.
I also find inspiration in sources as disparate as the French film Noir, the lyrics of alternative music, advertisements of the 1960s and of course, the beauty of my Pacific Northwest surroundings.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My art address several themes, but paramount in all of my figurative, abstract and still-life works is the theme of transformation.
Much of my earliest works address the transformation of materials by their environment. Whether it be surf-worn beach glass and pottery shards, or the driftwood and battered shells of the Pacific, I strive to show the object’s journey, unique history, and static presence. The worn edges and polished surfaces reveal an object that has been made more beautiful and more interesting by its tumultuous journey. Having lived in locales as far flung as Toronto, San Francisco, France and Hong Kong, I understand how moving changes us, and how it shapes and changes outlook and memory. It’s also given me the chance to witness both the sublime and the tragic in our relationships with Mother Nature.
My mixed media abstract works, such as my Transmutable series, explore where this energy, this creative force may be stored. These works are an optimistic proposal, a quasi-scientific hypothesis that this energy, as with the first law of thermodynamics, is preserved in a closed system. The latest lockdowns during COVID-19 have felt like a closed system, and these works visually describe the energy as flowing down the canvas and being wound into a new framework. The winding conveys the same potential or stored energy as a spring, ready to be used or rediscovered in the future. The embroidery is wound around a painting stretcher, creating a framework or window that opens to new opportunities.
In these works, creative energy is not lost, just transformed from paint to stitching, then to a woven, loom-like structure. These works also blur the line between art and craft, and celebrate the meditative aspects of handicrafts — a ritual many of us turned to in the isolation and stress of the pandemic.”
How would you describe your work?
“My work is varied in subject matter and media, but my style and artistic philosophy is defined by my interest in, and skill with, a wide range of materials and methods. My background as an art conservator inspires me to work with challenging materials such as gold leaf, rare pigments and found objects.
I believe my most powerful work arises from my drive to grant strength to the powerless, endangered or misunderstood. Whether it’s my paintings that convey the tragic bleaching of our coral reefs, the plight of refugees, or the widespread mental health crisis, much of my work is issue-driven, without first appearing to be.
While my paintings of the pro-democracy protests I witnessed while living in Hong Kong, or my portraits of victims of police violence may be more overtly political, other paintings such as the Deliquesce or Transmutable series speak in a more metaphorical sense to the universal despair many of us feel at this time of pandemic isolation, existential climate crisis and political strife.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I am heavily influenced by the rich history of the San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement which informs much of my live model studies in oil. This includes artists such as Elmer Bischoff and David Park, as well as Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell and Paul Kleeand.”
What is your creative process like?
“I work from live model sessions for my figurative work, a process that was somewhat disrupted by the pandemic restrictions. Fortunately, some sessions moved to a virtual format. I find the presence of a working model keeps me very present and energized. I have great respect for the artistry they bring to their poses, and want to respond in kind with sensitive, quality renderings. Sometimes I work from my own pencil sketches, but for longer poses, I work with oil applied directly to the canvas using a palette knife, creating thick impasto and expressive forms.
My photographic work, which I pursue while hiking or paddle boarding with my two rescue dogs, Tika and Kip, provides a wealth of reference images for my landscape and still life work.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“In some ways, never have artists had such a large reach as they do now. Social media enables artists to share their craft with an audience around the world. Yet, the drawn or painted image can get lost in the tsunami of visual content available to the scrolling eye. I hope that in this barrage of imagery — much of it filtered or altered — an original piece of art stands out as an authentic vision. May the artist’s authentic take on the world require more of our time, our considered thought, and work to slow the frantic scrolling experience to a more mindful contemplation.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Recently, my most figurative works were exhibited in the solo show ‘Deliquescence’ in Vancouver. I have also shown in the Harmony Arts Festival Group Show in Vancouver, and was selected as a Regional Finalist in the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series 2106.
Other exhibitions have been as follows:
2021 - Exhibition Prunelle, CinéVert, Montreal, Canada (virtual).
2020 - Saving Sea to Sky, Hearth Gallery, Bowen Island, Canada.
2019 - After the Protests. An Archive of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement - C.K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Canada.
2018 - Time and Tides, West Vancouver Arts Council Exhibition at the Silk Pure Gallery. 28 paintings of the Lunation Series. West Vancouver, Canada
- Deliquesce: The Figurative Works of T. Flynn Seybold Basic Inquiry Gallery. Vancouver, Canada.
2016 - Bombay Sapphire Artistan Series. Regional Finalists Winsor Gallery. Vancouver, Canada.
- Curated Works of the Harmony Arts Festival, Group Show. Silk Purse Gallery. Vancouver, Canada.
2015 - The Figurative Works of T. Flynn Seybold Kinsale - Kennedy Town, Hong Kong.
2013 - i.den.ti.ty Leo Lee Arts Center, Hong Kong.”
Website: www.tammyflynnseybold.com
Instagram: @arteachday
