After more than 20 years creating art while living out of a van, car, or pickup, Tyrone Patkoski has found a home for his body of work at the Tahoma Indian Center in downtown Tacoma, WA.
Tyrone's art is genuine and raw. He spent decades rummaging dumpsters and exploring alleys looking for inspiration. He uses whatever he can salvage to create his works: mascara brushes, broken electronic parts, discarded x-ray film holders, garbage, and even one of his fingernails.
When asked what inspires him, the 59-year-old, half-Polish, half-Snoqualmie Indian, looks down and quietly responds, "I don't think about what I'm going to paint. I just let the paint do what it wants to do."
Thanks to the efforts of Joan Staples-Baum, Tahoma Indian Center Program Manager, Tyrone's work is on display. Joan not only wants others to see Tyrone's art, she wants to help a friend find a way to feed himself so he can continue to create.
Tyrone's art is a reflection of his life and also a testament to friendship and community. Joan's motivation is as genuine as Tyrone's art. "He needs the money. He just wants to do more art and find food to eat," she said.
Some might describe Tyrone's work as Outsider Art, Folk Art or Intuitive Art. For Tyrone, these are meaningless definitions. He'd rather be riding his bicycle around Tacoma, scrounging for discarded ink pens, paper and paint than waste time pondering how to define his work.
When asked why he creates, Tyrone chuckles uncomfortably and shrugs, "I dunno." He doesn't know, nor does he care.
French Artist, Jean Dubuffet, characterized art created by those living on the margins of society as Art Brut (French for Raw Art or Rough Art). Dubuffet wrote:
"Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere – are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professionals. After a certain familiarity with these flourishing of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade."
For Tyrone, art is “just something I do at four or five in the morning when I start to think of something funny."
Tyrone's art can be seen at the Tahoma Indian Center, 1556 Market St., Tacoma, WA 98402, 253-593-2707