Memories IN MINIATURE
Artist specializes in tiny reproductions
Albuquerque’s Tim Prythero makes neighborhood miniatures veiled in the ghosts of a fleeting past.
The artist recreates the illusions of decrepit gas stations, taco wagons and abandoned trucks with a microscopic reverence for detail.
Ancient dust powders an old storefront in a patina of memory. Bare wires dangle from the ghosts of wire fixtures. A wooden Coke box leans against cracking plaster. The bleached rib bones of a long-deceased cow rest beneath a windmill. Prythero usually works a half-inch to 1 inch per foot. If a gas pump stands 5 feet tall; he’ll make it 5 inches. His passion for detail is so strong that he even reproduces the trash in a rusted oil can.
The artist’s Lilliputian worlds are on display at Weems Galleries & Framing through May 29. The show also includes works by Andrew Rodriguez and Miguel Grave de Peralta. Prythero fashions his fantasies using cast resin, wood, plastic and metal, painstakingly painted using a fine brush or an airbrush. The result is a mélange of model railroad scalestorefronts and dollhouses. Twigs stand in for trees.
Prythero says he lifts his images from his own photographs, as well as from books and antique signs and gas pumps gleaned from fire sales and eBay.
“I like people to imagine putting themselves in it,” he said.“I like the old patinas and the weathering effects.”
A decaying Conoco gas station features dust-caked mullioned windows, crooked Venetian blinds, a rusted oil can and an old tire leaning against a fading
wall. Prythero says he might add a minuscule Valvoline or Penzoil sign to the diminutive diorama.
“I remember going out on the old 66 highway and seeing these old gas stations,” he said. “I just thought they had a lot more character than a modern gas station.”
A windmill turns above an old tractor missing a tire standing sentinel over the desert. A bovine skeleton rests in the dirt. A tiny concrete block straddles a windmill beam behind a discarded rag. A Barbie-sized pair of pliers rests on another.
What could become a masterpiece is still in progress. Prythero is working on a miniature of the 90-year-old pueblo deco KiMo Theatre. A friend designed its ornate architectural embellishments, and the artist painted them. Navajo swastikas, parrots and rain clouds ornament terra cotta shields. Two-inch movie posters proclaim choices from the era, including “Casablanca” and the Marx Brothers’ “Coconuts.” Strings of miniature LED lights await hanging.
“I’ve been out to the KiMo three times to take pictures,” Prythero said. “It’s almost an architectural model.”
The artist’s studio is a concrete rectangle behind his modest home. Remnants of his passions perch on shelves and hang from the walls. The model cars he made as a kid sit next to advertising mascots like a doll-sized Big Boy from the old hamburger chain. An original Chevron gas pump rescued from Downtown demolition leans against a tool shed. Old Texaco and Chief signs repurposed as drawer bases.
Prythero grew up in Albuquerque, where he tinkered with model railroads and watched his father paint and create his own miniatures sans the intricate detail of his son. He says he took just one art class in public school and a few at the University of New Mexico. It proved a bad match at the dwindling of abstract expressionism.
“They said I put too much detail in,” he said. “I said, ‘That’s what I do.’ ”
He’s been a professional artist since high school, aside from occasional remodeling jobs during downtimes. His mind is a font of ideas. He wants to go to Mexico to photograph and re-create old mom and pop storefronts. He’s working on a Top Dog hot dog stand. He wants to do a series of A&W root beer stands. A sketch of the “Breaking Bad” Winnebago hangs from his bulletin board. He dreams of reproducing the old wharfs and scuffed boats in Maine.
A friend once asked Prythero to make a model of his all-too-modern home.
“It was tough to do,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was fun.”
Four of Prythero’s pieces hang in the New Mexico Museum of Art. A fourth — a miniature trading post — is in the Albuquerque Museum. His public art collections include the Albuquerque Sunport, Bernalillo County, Santa Fe Community College, Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank and the Roswell Museum.
He is represented by Weems and Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe.