HARRISONBURG, Va. — Every day for just over six years now, Virginia artist Jeffrey Thelin has fulfilled his chosen chore. Fusing a love of photography and geometry, he channels his passion through digital programs to create a unique art piece.
Literally, every day.
"My goal is to make art every day for ten years straight," said Thelin, who goes by the artist name 'Teyleen.'
"There's a great sense of speed I work within a lot of my pieces. They end up very abstract," he told me as we discussed his art during a recent ZOOM chat.
The day we spoke, Thelin had gone 2,209 days making a new and unique piece each day. Except for one day, which he says the universe should forgive. His car broke down on a cross-country drive to a job interview he didn't get. A motel he found was full and he ended up sleeping in the parking lot.
As a digital artist, Thelin was never far from his studio. It's was always with him. In his pocket.
"In the first one thousand days I created my art entirely on my iPhone," said Thelin. "During that time I got married, I was a new father, working and somehow trying to make art every day while keeping up with my studies."
His early work typically showcased a geometric design layered on top of a photo he had taken previously. Often it was a photo showcasing a natural element.
"Even if I'm holding my son and rocking him to sleep I could actually be making art. Even if I had only one arm available I could still be making art and that felt really inspiring to me," he said.
More than halfway through his ten-year mission now, Thelin finds himself bursting with new ideas every day.
"The first day when I sat down with that blank canvas it was just so much fear of how could I make something every day for a year. But now after having made almost two thousand pieces, in every blank canvas I see so many possibilities," he said with a smile. "My ideas and aspirations around my art are getting bigger than what's possible to do in a single day now."
Unique to this ZOOM interview, Thelin walked me through the process of how he creates his digital art using a program on his iPad called 'Procreate'.
"Today I'm going to walk you through making an abstract starfield," he said.
After only ten minutes, using a base image of the wall in his house and a color palette from his sweater he had forged an image that inspired cosmic wonder, evoking the jump to light speed in 'Star Wars' and the majesty of the Milky Way galaxy.
"This art I'm making is to encourage positive thinking or just even for a moment to help people relax," he said. "It's like an ocean I get to jump back into every day and I try to find something to share."
You can find Teyleen on Instagram HERE.
HERE are additional links to his work.
Follow him on Twitter HERE.
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