Hugh P. Timlin

Hugh Timlin, 63, of Mt. Pleasant, passed away March 27, 2009 at his home. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, April 11, at the Timlin farm in Lake, Michigan. Services will begin at 1 p.m., followed by food and celebration. For directions to the farm, please email: peep@shepherdswork.org. His cremains will be put to rest in a special place on the farm he loved so much. Although he spent his final days confined to a bed, he continued to make art, give advice and philosophize about life into his final hours. Just as he lived, he left his body " peacefully " in the early morning (his favorite time of day), surrounded by his children. In a more than a forty-year career as a sculptor, Hugh Timlin was a well-recognized and highly respected presence in the metropolitan Detroit Art community. He exhibited extensively throughout the state and nationally including the Art Exhibit for the National Conference on Religious Architecture in Washington D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts. His public commissions included work for the City of Battle Creek, Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Detroit, Temple Beth Israel in Flint, Lansing General Hospital, and Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He taught at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and held adjunct positions at Mercy College and Wayne State University in Detroit. Hugh was the first Barston Foundation Artist in Residence at Central Michigan University. Hugh served on the board of the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit from 2002 until his death. His life and work was the subject of a cover story for the Detroit Metro Times in March of 2000. His poetry and essays have been featured in The Metro Times as well as The Detroiter. Hugh lived in a house and worked in a studio that he built on his small farm, Shepherdswork, located in the central Michigan area. It was at this farm where he raised his seven children, Aaron, Jacob, Rebekah, Daniel, Rachel, Mara and Joseph with their mother Two Moons. The Timlin farm was featured in a WJRT Channel 12 news story in the 1980s. He was working on a collection of essays and poetry that he planned to publish prior to his passing. Hughs work will be exhibited through April 10 at the Farmington Hills City Gallery, located in the Costick Center, 28600 W. 11 Mile. The retrospective exhibition features work spanning over 40 years from his childrens private collections.