Visual Perspectives
By Jordan Staggs Photography courtesy of Tim Hussey
“I’D LOVE TO SUGGEST JUST BEING HONEST AT ALL TIMES,” SAYS VISUAL ARTIST TIM HUSSEY. “WE CANNOT KNOW WHY WE ARE HERE. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. IT SEEMS LIKE THE TRUTH OF EACH MOMENT IS THE ONLY NIGHT-LIGHT THERE IS.” Hussey, who says he cannot remember a time when he wasn’t creating cartoons as a child, believes that his quest for the meaning of life—in general and for his own destiny—is what calls him to art. “I drew to give myself some sense of differentiation,” he explains. “I didn’t understand what made people so sure of what life was for. I needed to find out on my own.” After high school in Charleston, South Carolina, Hussey attended the Rhode Island School of Design with his “skateboarding buddy,” Shepard Fairey. The latter is now known as the creator of OBEY Clothing. Dreams of sitting at a drawing board to create Rockwellian works of family and life were always in the back of Hussey’s mind, but he began his career as a commercial illustrator painting sets for MTV during live television broadcasts (you know, back when they played music on MTV). 44 | M A R CH 2 0 21
