Like the waves he’s riding while surfing, David Tinsley’s art has been going at high speeds.

In the past year, the handyman and Florida transplant discovered his love for driftwood and it’s taken him on unexpected paths.

“I started going to the beach here and saw plenty of wood around so I began picking it up,” Tinsley, 47, said. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do with it?’”

Tinsley, who operates Tinsley’s Carpentry, says he’s never made art seriously before but he’s worked with wood in many capacities professionally. However, he said something felt natural about working with driftwood.

“It just came to me,” he said.

Unlike local driftwood artists who can work for dozens to hundreds of hours on one piece, Tinsley opts to leave the wood alone for the most part.

“All driftwood is as is,” he said. “It’s amazing to think I’m the only person who has touched it.”

Tinsley prefers to keep his process fairly hush hush though. He’s tried many ways to connect the driftwood to form shapes and he’s found one that works best.

His art started taking shape as driftwood surfers and evolved into animals and lately more complete people. But he does a mix of it all, Tinsley said, just not all at once.

“I can only do one at a time,” he said. “I’m not satisfied until I’m finished.”

Like many artists, Tinsley’s work is inspired by how he feels at the time but he recently went through a two-month creativity block.

“I went to La Push surfing and saw a piece that looked like an arm to me and that jump started what looked like ‘Silent Sobs’ to me,” he said.

Now that piece is ready for the Peninsula Arts League’s show in Gig Harbor this September.

It became part of a three-piece series including “Zen,” which recently was selected for the Northwind Arts Center and Port Townsend Arts Commission’s 18th annual juried art exhibition, and “Hollow Pain.”

Tinsley said “Zen” represents him going through the struggle as a new artist and “Hollow Pain” shows how he pulled everything out of his brain to see what’s coming next.

When he’s out searching for the next important piece, Tinsley said, “It’s like the wood talks to me.”

And that’s an important element to what makes Tinsley’s art exciting for him — that he doesn’t know what’s coming next.

Home for an artist

Tinsley calls Sequim’s Blue Whole Gallery his home base where his art has been sold for about a year.

His work is at or has been exhibited in Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay Gallery and the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and he’s planning to try for shows in Seattle to get his name out there and broaden his horizons, he said.

Tinsley spent most of his life in Florida before moving to Sequim in 2013 to be with his wife Kimi.

Despite being a newer artist, Tinsley spends about 30-40 hours a week in his shop, he says.

“Being a solar-powered person, I went into the shop in the winter and began exploring,” he said.

Discovering art at midlife isn’t uncommon especially in Sequim where many retirees take it up as a post-retirement hobby but Tinsley calls his newfound passion a “midlife crisis awakening.”

He said working as an artist has helped him find a place in the world.

“It’s a way to connect (and) to realize that I have something to offer (and) to touch others through the spirit of the work,” he said.

Tinsley sees a lot of connections between surfing and his art, too.

“My mind and art is pushing me to different directions,” he said.

“I’m all about balance and movement.”

His art also led him to recently speak to members of the Olympic Driftwood Sculptors at its monthly meeting.

Tinsley said he told club members while their art appears different it comes from similar places.

“They have a vision about driftwood on the inside and I have a vision on the outside,” he said.

For more in Tinsley’s artistic vision, check out his work at “Out in the Blue Creations” at http://outinthebluecreati.wixsite.com/mysite or at the Blue Whole Gallery, 129 W. Washington St.

Reach him at tinsleydavid1@gmail.com or 461-9600.

Below, “Zen” by David Tinsley is on exhibit at the Northwind Arts Center and Port Townsend Arts Commission’s 18th annual juried art exhibition. Photo by Eric Neurath