Ives was born in Sydney to a Bundjalung woman and a white father. His mother’s family are from around Baryulgil and Cangai on the Mann River. At seventeen years of age Tim moved up to Bundjalung country. He found work at the old meatworks and lived in Byron Bay. When the meatworks closed in 1983 he started carving bits of driftwood with an old knife and ended up with a box full of Australian animal figures which were bought by a gallery in Byron Bay. Tim hand carves and then paints animal figures and occasionally paints on canvas. He sells his works to order through galleries and shops in Sydney and Byron Bay. He has chosen not to enter competitions because he sees art as such a subjective medium.
