Tim O'Brien

Artist Statement

Title: Chicken or Egg

This image is about technology versus nature. The conversation is everywhere, from agriculture, science, and medicine, to AI-generated art. This image takes the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, and re-imagines it.

At first, we see that the question might be settled here, that the egg ‘projects’ the chicken, so clearly, the egg comes first. However, the image of the chick that the egg projects existed first, so perhaps it is the chicken? So, nothing is settled other than humankind is involved, inserting itself into the conversation.”

About the Artist

Illustrator and portrait painter Tim O’Brien has a knack for pop culture, often infusing it into artistic visions that simultaneously reveal its strangeness and familiarity. His work has been published most notably in TIME Magazine as well as Der Spiegel, Stern, Smithsonian Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, Nautilus Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Business Week, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, PlanSponsor, National Geographic, Playboy, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Dial, Harper Collins, Penguin, Times Books, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, TOR, Viking, Warner, and many others. Tim has designed several US Postage Stamps.

Tim has received multiple awards and recognitions from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles, Graphis, Print, Communication Arts Magazine, the Society of Publication Designers, American Illustration, Spectrum, and the Art Directors Club, wherein, 2019, he won all top cube prizes; Bronze, Silver, and Gold for his Trump Time Covers. Tim’s work is included in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC., and is a winner of the prestigious Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators. Tim O’Brien is the president of the Society of Illustrators, New York City.

His numerous speaking engagements include The United Nations, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Society of Illustrators, Syracuse University, School of Visual Arts, Pratt, Rhode Island School of Design, California College of the Arts, Brigham Young University, Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Tim is a professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and frequently lectures across the country. Tim lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife, Creative Director/VP at Scholastic, Elizabeth Parisi, and their wonderful son, Cassius.

Find Tim on Twitter | Website.

View on Opensea here.

Contact us at letters@time.com.