Tony Maher: Mud, Blood and Mental Grit

Today, our Drive-by Iterviews continue with a brief chat with artist Tony Maher.

My current body of work, “Mud, Blood and Mental Grit”, is a collection of photographs that focus on obstacle course running, and this sport is what presently inspires me. Being out in the wild so to speak with a bunch of other people crawling under barbed wire through mud, jumping into ice baths and running through electrified wires may not seem like a fun way to spend your free time to most, but I really can’t think of anything better.

I am lucky enough to have a day job that involves art. I am a professor of art at a few colleges/universities in Southern California.

A motto that I have lived by for awhile is “Finish strong, or don’t start.” A friend of mine who passed a few years back inspired this, and I apply it to many aspects in life from artwork to mud runs.

Sacrifices for art? Oh yeah, I sold my 1965 Ford Mustang so I could finish my senior year in college. Which included I think art should function in society as an outlet for ideas and creative thinking. People can get very pigeon holed in their lives, and art is a great way for many to be exposed to something new. I wouldn’t say that artist have any one responsibility, but I do believe people should make what they want regardless of the public’s perception or reaction to their work. This also includes an artist’s family and friends.

About featured piece-- Abandoned Barn Bell Buckle, TN

The work deals with the issues of remembrance and the representation of locations in my past, from childhood to adult. The models I create and then photograph become simulacra for the places I once lived, visited or simply hung out. They tend to offer more than the recreation of the original experience as well, often conjuring up more than just the one original memory of that specific life experience.

Tony Maher is one of 26 artists featured in our current exhibition: MyScape