Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — Driving for a career delivering horse trailers was a blast for Jim Tonseth of Salisbury. It was something he loved doing, but on Jan. 1, 2020, that all changed. His career path took a different turn — into the world of art.

It was the day before on Dec. 31 that he returned home from Missouri after dropping off a trailer. He and wife Phyllis had gone to sleep early, and Jim woke up the next day, completely blind, with just a huge white cloud in front of his face.

“I could see absolutely nothing, which is terrifying,” he said.

Tests followed with the diagnosis of mild sleep apnea which had damaged the optic nerve, which had been starved of oxygen, he said. He was told he might get his sight back in six to eight months but that was not a guarantee.

Wanting a second opinion, they went to Duke University where, following hours of testing and an MRI ruling out a tumor or other causes, the answer was the same — mild sleep apnea.

This, said Tonseth, was happening when COVID was going on, “so getting a sleep study to get a CPAP machine was next to impossible.” 

It was scheduled, postponed and rescheduled. When it finally happened, it revealed he had mild sleep apnea, and the same process for the sleep lab.

However, he now has the machine and while he said it was a challenge in the beginning, he is used to it and “now it’s no big deal at all.” The result has definitely been, as he said, “life changing.”

Before that day in January 2020, Tonseth had intended on cutting down on the amount of driving he did, which was about 4,000 miles a week.

That all ended and he said it took him about three and a half to four years to get his head straight as he went from completely sighted to completely blind, plus he has to rely on somebody else all the time.

When he drove for a living, he was also involved in another business — We Recycle Tires, which made things out of old NASCAR racing tires. It made about 80 different items, Tonseth said, with one of the major being rubber fencing for horses. Other items included silage cover weights for dairy farmers, mouse pads, Christmas ornaments and keychains.

“Literally anything you can think of to reuse the material rather than throw it away,” he said.

Things changed in 2008 when the economy crashed, he said, and sales went way down.

He noted that his best friend and partner is handling their concession business in Florida. For Tonseth, since losing his sight, things are more difficult and he is doing other things with the material.

And one of those things is using the sidewalls as a painting canvas.

Having gotten back about 95 percent of his sight, Tonseth can see things that are large and high contrast, but what is right before him is just a blur.

“If it’s small stuff, that doesn’t work, it’s just a blur,” he said.

He has some custom-built glasses similar to a telescope, thinking he might be able to use these to drive again, he said.

Using them, he said he could “see 500 yards down the road clear but when you’re looking through a telescope, it’s that small” and that he “could change the focal point but it’s very small. There’s no peripheral stuff.” 

So not wanting to endanger himself and others, he decided to forfeit his license. He came to the decision to start what was originally planned for 2020 and that was to use his creative talents, something he has been gifted with all his life, and “merged my tire stuff with painting.”

The process begins with a whole tire, and the sidewalls are cut out “because of the space it takes up,” he said.

These tires are old NASCAR racing tires, he explained as he held one before it was painted. It showed the markings on it, revealing that it was a right rear tire from a race in Atlanta, and it was a qualifying set, he said.

He has been collecting tires for many years, and has quite the collection to use for his artwork.

“I have a huge warehouse with about 20,000 tires right now, down from 70,000,” he said. ”Over 30 years, you collect a lot and sell a lot.”

Once the tire is cut, he cleans it with chemicals to get rid of the oil or any other debris it might have picked up on the track.

Then, a base coat of paint is applied to the tire, one that he said “will adhere to it because rubber doesn’t take paint very well unless you condition it, put stuff on it to make that happen. We have a special paint that we use and paint the whole thing.”

A classically trained artist, having received his degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Tonseth knew what to do. The problem is, he said, “all that training, I can’t use it because I can’t see.” He was inspired by the artist Jackson Pollock and his style, which is called “action painting, which is basically throwing or splashing paint onto canvases,” something he became famous for.

He also noted that he is basically using enamel paint, “primarily because that was what Pollock used.”

And while Pollock’s paint was oil based, Tonseth is using water based, because it’s easier for him. 

“It’s a whole lot easier for someone who is blind to work with it because it’s easier to wash off,” he said.

As for Tonseth, he said he is inspired by what Pollock did because “I can actually see it, a lot of it. I can’t see a bunch, but a lot of it I can see because there’s high contrast.”

The actual painting process is done on a lazy Susan platform he made to place the tire or a canvas on and he turns it. He uses a small spatula, which he dips into the paint and drizzles it over the tire as it turns.

He said, “I want the major portion to flow. I don’t want it to be really heavy or thick and then I will drizzle and try to watch what I’m doing. The initial colors are easy to see because there’s high contrast because this is painted white and with white and any color I can see that.”

He also uses silicone spoons for bigger canvases and has all sorts of different items.

For one piece, he told how he did one part with a brush and other parts were done with a spatula. Dots on the top layer were made by him putting his hands in the paint, and making sure it was streaming off but “literally dribbling over the top. That’s why there’s actually no pattern to that and there’s no consistency,” he said, adding that he loves this particular style of painting.

As for how he knows the painting is complete and it’s how he wants it to look, he said, “a lot of it is actually just divine guidance really because I can’t see a lot of what I’m doing.” So he just waits for that guidance as he is drizzling the paint.

“And basically, it’s going to sound weird,” he said, but “I listen to the sound of the paint and it’s telling me when there’s enough. It sounds really, really weird, probably is to most normal people, but when you lose one sense the other ones get kind of accentuated. They don’t take over,” but he said he concentrates more.

Prior to his going blind, Tonseth said he had bought many supplies such as canvases, paint and alcohol ink which he intended to use. His plan, he said, “got kind of wiped out and what I’ve since done after going through the depression that goes with losing your sight, I’ve finally gotten back to doing something.”

When he paints, Tonseth said that is doing a process of putting layers on the tire or canvas and letting it dry. “I do not want the paint to actually mix together for what I’ve been doing so far.”

When wet paint is on top of another layer that is wet, he said you can have a chemical reaction, something he tries to avoid happening.

As for how long it takes to complete a piece, he said it depends on the layers and the time it takes to dry. He typically lets it dry four hours between layers.

For example, he said a piece that has 12-15 layers may take over a week.

And then once the piece is dry, he lets it dry for another 24 hours before putting two coats of varnish on it.

“The varnish actually brings out the pigments in the colors a whole lot brighter as well as protects the surface from damage,” said Tonseth. “Once the varnish is on there, the surface is a whole lot tougher.”

He has plans for additional paintings, he said, “where I’m basically setting up parameters for stuff to happen with machines like a giant pendulum machine as well as a giant spin machine and then combining both of those to do incredibly unique canvases of painting. I’m not really painting it, I’m pretty much setting up what can occur and then letting nature take its course.” 

He has the materials to build these machines and is in the process of building this equipment.

“The problem is, I need eyes to do it,” he said. He’s had some help, but would like to get someone who has basic mechanical skills who can help and hopes to work on these machines this summer.

When asked what he wants people to learn from seeing his work, he said, first, you can paint on anything, noting the tires and he also uses the tread to paint on. He has  also painted on frisbees and record albums.

Secondly, he said, “anybody I believe can do this.”

Tonseth has done several shows and anticipates one later in the fall with Carolina Artists and plans to have several pieces of his rubber artwork and the remainder would be new items.

In addition to his painting, he said he also “stays very active watching art-related YouTube videos of other folks and what they are doing, getting inspired by some of them.”