Tima was born in the San Fernando Valley of California and grew up moving around the greater Los Angeles area with her parents and two younger brothers. Her mother took notice of her early and persisting interest in art and entered her in a studio art class when she was eight years old. Her first experience with graphite, charcoal, ink and pastel was in this class, and she became infatuated with the idea of painting with oil while observing the older students. Around the same time, Tima’s mother decided to homeschool Tima and her brothers. With extra time at home Tima spent much of it with visual art practices, took piano lessons, learned how to sew and began her first poetry journal. As a growing youth she discovered comic books and trading cards and began to use the superhero model as a base for her figurative exploration.

Tima’s teenage years took her artistic expression to a less traditional approach; during this time she favored graffiti, relied on fashion, and practiced dance, though continued to write and draw with a more abstracted, experimental depth. Her graffiti career, though short-lived, was spent with parked trains and hidden walls where she could take her time painting colorful female figures and signatures under the name Mait. She was also an avid stencil-maker.

In her early twenties, Tima drastically shifted gears and abandoned much of her social interaction for the pursuit of self-awareness and existential meaning. She spent much of her time alone, working a job or working on developing her artistic temperament. This highly introspective phase was the counterpart to a flux of heavy depression which persisted for several years; a time which she developed a macabre style and matured her knack for the written art form, as she kept many journals of personal documentation, dream and philosophical analyses, and poetic expression.

Tima decided to place a more serious emphasis on art upon enrollment at El Camino College. Her unconventional approach was to dismiss the rush for a degree but take in as many lessons as she could. Here she finally received the guidance she needed to pursue her unfading desire to learn how to paint with oil. She also joined the art club and became active historian, was twice published in the school’s annual creative journal The Myriad, and was selected for several on-campus exhibitions. Tima’s college experience was initially a time of technical practice and development, though her creative prowess took the reigns as her skills became second nature. Dozens of art classes later, Tima discovered a gallery management certification that the college was offering and jumped on the opportunity, which subsequently led to her emergence into the art world.

Since 2010 Tima has participated in over sixty exhibitions held at numerous locations in Los Angeles, Orange County, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and the east coast; some of which she played a curatorial role. Through these connections Tima has built a network of seasoned and emerging contributors to the art industry, and won the hearts of private collectors who own numerous pieces from her painting collection. She is also frequently requested for private commissions, largely for her highly creative nature and ability to work in a variety of mediums. Although paint is her most emotional and curiosity driven medium, her creative passion continues to drive her momentum for new ways to articulate her motto, “live art”. Tima is known to be the muse of several artists including John Dicandia of Melbourne, Australia, and Johnny Naked of Los Angeles, California, and is the model subject of many paintings and fine art photos. Other employed projects include, costume and prop design and fabrication, logo, web and business card design, graphite and charcoal portraiture, and special oil paintings commissioned by those who appreciate her style of mixing figurative and representational rendering with expressive abstraction. Nearly every one of her commissioners has given her the reigns over creative control.

In 2011, Tima and a small group of creatives developed a collaborative project to involve all mediums of expression and encourage a participatory nature to its presentation. Inspired by sociological perspectives, the goal was to bring down the walls that categorize individuals into groups. They decided to call the project Interactionism. The group dissolved during its conceptual stages, but Tima continued the idea by hosting events. During interactionist events the concept is illustrated by removing any rigid distinctions between different creative media, and between the artists and the viewers. First, by bringing all creative methods under one roof and having them interact or respond to each other; and secondly, by blurring the line between creator and viewer by devising an interactive quality or opportunity for the viewer to respond. Viewers become participators, thus becoming creators of their own device.
Interactionism Manifesto  Call to Artists  Past Events

For the past several years Tima has focused her exercise on digital media. She believes, “it is more than simply appropriate to be present within this digital age we live in, it is imperative to a greater connectivity beyond biological impulses”. Her father, a third generation master printer who works exclusively with a world-renowned master photographer, has also influenced her preoccupation with art which relies on technology. Her most recent group exhibition, curated by Mat Gleason, featured a large-scale FINE (Full-Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) print of a highly modified digital photo. Her digital style can be considered an offshoot of the Glitch movement, and is a direct reflection of her current philosophical disposition: “to be close enough to the edge to see into the future, high enough to see the beauty of what lay behind, and grounded into the presence of ones current circumstances”.

Self Portrait, October 2013