Black Ribbon Road: Tim Stapleton

“Tim Stapleton’s striking design . . . the long diagonal wires with their curtains of transparent white material, the cloudy sky painted on the wall at the stage, the white panels that frame each scene . . . is a perfect ground for the story.” – The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon

“I paint the way thought travels. If I’m successful, the traces of memory I choose will emotionally challenge the viewers and lure them to explore the mysteries of their own experiences.” – Tim Stapleton

Haunting photographs by Tim Stapleton document his journey home to the Appalachian mountains after a heartbreaking 30 year separation from home. Sunday performances of his original play, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” bring to light his baptism into a strict southern church and the abuse that follows. Haunting and healing the artwork and performance reveal a fascination struggle to happiness.

A note from the artist

I decided to do this project because my stories have been buried for sometime. They kept crying out to me. So I dug them up and exposed their decomposing parts. I made a sojourn back to my roots, back to the Eastern Kentucky Appalachians. I dredged up the past and took a good long look at where I came from. I talked with a choice few who have remained there, One who has been living in a deep recess of my heart for low these forty years. I took photographs. I painted. I wrote a performance piece and a manuscript detailing my childhood there and my journey out.

When I had uncovered everything I could find, and brushed the cobwebs from my memory, I had these piles of torn recollections, and I had to decide exactly what to do with them. So I went about pasting them together to see if I could make, out of faded visuals, a representation of how it’s been for me. You know, a collage, an image of a life.

Tim Stapleton lives in Portland, and has been a professional Scenic Designer for thirty years. He was the resident designer for Boarshead: Michigan Public Theatre in Lansing, Michigan for eight seasons. He came to the Pacific Northwest in 1986, and has since designed scenery for several Theatre Companies in the area. Tim has worked with the Regional Arts & Culture Council in Portland as a liaison to Social Services, and has taught Theatre courses for Willamette University, Central Washington University, and Lewis & Clark College. He has three Drammy awards from the Portland Area Theatre Alliance for his stage designs, as well as a Fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts. He has been a guest designer for The Pacific Dance Ensemble and Red Octopus Theatre Company in Newport, Oregon, The Apollo Theatre in Chicago, The Riverwalk Theatre in Okemos, Michigan, Wenatchee Children’s Theatre in Washington State, and the Mariko Dance Theatre in Kyoto, Japan. Tim’s paintings have been shown at the Mina Dresden Gallery in San Francisco, the Lansing Art Gallery in Lansing, Michigan, the Huntington Galleries in Huntington, West Virginia, Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and with the Kentucky Arts Commission in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his MFA in Creative Inquiry from New College of California. Tim has written a soon to be published manuscript titled BLACK RIBBON ROADS: a journey out of Appalachia.