Tinman’s Heart

“I have no idea what I’m doing, but that’s how I want it. I’m having fun making mistakes, and you don’t get to do that often when you’re grown. Everything has rules now.” -TinmanG (Gabe Razo) “Tinman’s Heart” is the name of a secret art project I began in December of 2018. I wanted it to be an entirely different and separate entity from any of my previous art, and aimed at keeping my identity a secret, for a very unique reason. I have been an artist ever since I was in high school, but I have been in a wheelchair since childhood. My paintings and photography have been in art shows/exhibits throughout Southern California, and although each and every single show was special and dear to my heart, I have always felt a hidden anxiety about them. It is this inner-anxiety that tells me “Your ART didn’t get you into this art show. Your DISABILITY did!” You see, I’ve always felt like I was asked to be part of those art shows, because I was always seen as a sort of novelty to feature. The “Inspirational Disabled Artist,” was, in my head, what others saw me as, and my art, in my head was secondary to my “Inspirational Story”. As much as I enjoy the possibility of inspiring others, especially other disabled artists, that’s never what I wanted the focus to be. In my head, my wheelchair has always been what people see first, not my art. And although a part of me always knows that these thoughts are simply my anxiety speaking, I still wanted to prove to myself that I was a legitimate artist as well, despite everything else that I might be. That is when “Tinman’s Heart” was first thought of. However, my particular style for Tinman’s Heart was actually found in an arcade at the mall. I went there with a friend one day, and saw an old school Street Fighter game, totally glitching out, but in the most absolutely mesmerizing way! It was as if the characters on screen were silhouettes of melting rainbow flowing static, with the most randomly vibrant assortments of Reds, Greens, Blues and Yellows I had ever seen. It instantly flooded my brain with serotonin, and I shouted “I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE THAT!” No doubt, my friend probably thought I was high, but that was what led me into choosing Glitch Art as the style for my secret Tinman’s Heart project. I started out not knowing anything about glitching, but simply edited and edited and edited until what I was looking at gave me that same euphoric feeling I first felt in the arcade. I then spent a few weeks studying digital glitching techniques, and then finally injected my knowledge of painting to those glitches, to create a “Controlled Chaos” of thousands of sharp, vibrant, and precise needle thin strokes. I now feel like I am at a point where I have built a fairly decent following for my Glitch Paintings, and have been accepted into 3 art shows thus far by people who have absolutely no idea who I am. And now, getting selected as a RAW artist was the Cherry on Top of the proof I needed to reassure myself that I am not just a “Disabled Artist”, but simply an individual with a unique talent, unique style, and unique story.