In the shock of premature death, unexpected, immediate, we reflect, urgently try to explain, understand, record memories. Recently we had shared together the loss of Helen Chadwick and, most recently, that of Tim's predecessor as Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London, Professor Alastair Grant. What an enormous blow this is, for there was work to do. This was no elder statesman of the subject, but, like Helen, a person in their prime with much left to give.
In art education and, in particular, postgraduate Fine Art, Tim was special and unique, a substantial marker and cornerstone to the subject. He was hard-working, scrupulous, very much part of the team and the institution, but also there for the students and the subject itself. This difficult three-handed relationship he managed with his generous spirit and good nature, demanding but easy, direct but open, with experience and youth on his side. The rigour with which he operated an egalitarian position set the highest standards that marks his stature and standing as an academic and as a person. A truly decent man, he expected and sought a respect of the individual and subject without any prejudice for style or fashion, only the pursuit of excellence. He gathered to him an energy and optimism, a down-to-earth humanitas, unruffled and real, truly reasonable.
Print-making and his relationship with it carried a kind of post-pop socialism perfectly reflected by teaching. His own images, juxtapositions of vivid colour and strange displaced objects, portraits and interiors were ambitious and exciting, using silk screen. These large multi-layered works constructed a complex and challenging set of questions, dense and intriguing. He moved the subject on.
He was an academic, but also an artist, making pictures, editions of images. There is a good deal of craft to making prints and his knowledge was generous and broad, but when it needed to be, specialist and profound.
I first met him in Dublin at the National College of Art and Design in the mid-1970s and subsequently worked for and with him when he went to Chelsea College of Art and, most recently, to the Royal College of Art. This department, where he himself had studied, is probably the most comprehensive in this subject, the world leader, and he was a great guardian of it, always in advance.
Teaching is about giving, but holding on to quality, encouraging development for new futures, but taking responsibility for what has gone before.
There are now so many ex-students who bear witness to his input, his support. Print making is page turning, casts of footballs in the sand, editions of images for many. Art is about digging deep and good artists are substantial people. Life has taken him from us too soon.
Tim Mara was a great teacher, print maker and artist. He is survived by his wife Belinda, his daughters Emily and Alice, his mother and three brothers, Charlie, Dave and Joe. N.R.