Tim McCreight
Even a Brick Dreams of Flying (2020)
Tim McCreight is a designer, teacher, author and metalsmith. He received a B.A. from The College of Wooster and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University. He taught full-time for 25 years, first in Massachusetts and then at the Maine College of Art, which brought him to Maine in 1988. Tim has taught hundreds of workshops throughout the US and in Canada, Japan, Mexico and the UK. He has written twenty books, produced a half dozen videos, and created Apps for mobile devices. He has served on several boards including the Society of North American Goldsmiths, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and his local land trust. He runs a publishing company called Brynmorgen Press.
About Flight:
In a seminal passage from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the narrator Ford makes this profound statement: “The Guide says there is an art to flying,” said Ford, “or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” This seems to put the situation nicely. Flying is simultaneously magical and terrifying, something we dream about as children, always knowing somewhere in our primitive brains that this is a preposterous idea. Thinking about flight in terms of objects led me to notions of paradox, of up and down, float and sink, dream and shudder. I hoped to capture these contradictory ideas in simple objects in which silliness is paired with deliberate craftsmanship.
Education
MFA, 1975, Bowling Green State University, Ohio Minor in Art History and Education
BA, 1973, The College of Wooster, Ohio with Honors; recipient, Netta Strain Scott Prize in Studio Art
Experience
Professor Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine 1987–2003 (Department Head, 1988-1999)
President, Brynmorgen Press since 1985
Books
PMC Decade, 2007, Brynmorgen Press
Practical Joining, 2006, Brynmorgen Press
Design Language: Interpretive Edition, 2006, Brynmorgen Press
The Syntax of Objects, 2005, Brynmorgen Press
Complete Metalsmith, 2004, (three editions), Brynmorgen Press
The Theory & Practice of Goldsmithing, by E. Brepohl (edited), 2001. Brynmorgen Press
Color on Metal, with Nicole Bsullak, 2001, Hand Books Press
Service
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Member of the Board of Trustees (since 1998)
American Craft Council (ACC) Member of the Board of Directors (1998-2001)
Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) President (1992-96) Member of the Board of Directors (1987-91)
Grants and Lectures
Lecture: “Start Here: Basic Assumptions about Design” Clasp Convergence, Memphis, TN
Lecture: “Working with Precious Metal Clay” (keynote) Eden Event, Cornwall England
Lecture: “Personal Directions,” Yamenishi Prefecture, Japan
Grant: ”Design Spirit,” Graham Foundation in Support of the Arts, Chicago
Grant: (residency) Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
Lecture: “From the Liberal Arts to the Decorative Arts” Visiting Faculty Series, College of Wooster, Ohio
Lecture: “Survey of American Metalsmithing” Newcastle Polytechnic, England
Grant: “Pre-Renaissance Metalwork” Worcester Cultural Commission enabling study in Europe.
Grant: “Low-Tech Methods for Making Damascus Steel” Boylston Arts Council Grant
