Tim Theriac at Ten Ton

WAITSBURG-If an artist is one who creates a composition with paint, photography or what have you, then a curator is an artist who paints with art. In a museum or gallery setting it is the curator's job to combine different works into a cohesive to-do.

Waitsburg artist, printmaker Gail Gwinn has taken curatorial control over the gallery space at Ten Ton. "It's interesting to be on the other side of the wall," says Gwinn. Having had the experience of being an artist lends Gwinn insight into the back-end of the installation process, but there are always unexpected occurrences where art hanging is concerned.

If Gwinn is the artist turned curator, then Tim Theriac is a curator turned artist. Theriac's studio, home and gardens are tended to with acute attention to detail. His life is artful. His art is life; full. It's when he's engaged in the care and maintenance of everyday living that Theriac is confronted with the shapes that define his photography.

"There's something about the beauty of the shapes," shares Theriac, "everything has got a magical shape in nature."

A curator of compositions, Theriac's entire workplace and home is comprised of vignettes that, themselves, are magazine-ready works of art. That effort carries seamlessly into the artist's floral portraits.

Theriac's subjects are inspired entirely by the gardens, but from the garden as a whole he plucks one shape out of the mass to craft an image. "I get obsessed with everything." From the natural shapes, juxtaposed against vibrant colors, or sharp contrast, come a sense of two-dimensional floral arranging.

The work on display at Ten Ton is site-specific. Each image was sized so that it fit the space carefully. The benefit of digital photography is that any of Theriac's works can be reprinted in alternative sizes to fit other locations.

See the show now through the end of September. The Ten Ton Gallery is open Thursday through Monday 8-2:30 p.m., or by appointment.