Thomas Scoon
Thomas Scoon’s sculptures can be seen in the collections of the Knoxville Museum of Art, TN, The Mobile Museum of Art, AL, The Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN, The Casine Collection, Sydney, Australia, The Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, and the Glassmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark. His work is part of private collections around the world, including the locations of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Mumbai, India, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Delhi, India. The solo shows and group exhibitions in which Thomas participated between the years of 1990 and 2015 are extremely numerous as are the publications that have given him merit.
Thomas obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Illinois State University in 1998. He continued his education at Massachusetts College of Art, gaining his Masters of Fine Art in 1990.
His work as a professional artist has been augmented through the years by teaching positions at several schools. In 1984, Thomas worked as a Teaching Assistant for Glass Blowing at Pilchuck Glass School. From 1989 to 1990 he taught Sculptural Glass Casting as an Adjunct Instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art, his alma mater. In 2003, Thomas again taught as an Adjunct Instructor of Sculpture, this time at the University of New Hampshire.
Artist’s Statement
“In my work, I create figures from sequences of stone and glass. The figures rise from the external landscape where I live, a place filled with remnants of stonewalls and glacial erratic. I gather stones from quarry rubble and from New Hampshire neighbors who allow me to choose stone from their land. The glass portions of the sculpture are combined with these found stones, suggesting human figures. I try to choose rocks that evoke the feeling and gesture of human forms, specifically torsos and heads. I will look for a flat rock with a curved edge and tapering form to suggest torsos or the triangulation of stone with a cleft that may hint of a head. I do very little to alter these stones in the process of making sculptures, perhaps just chiseling or cutting a bit. Instead, I seek to emphasize qualities already naturally present.
The layering of kiln-cast glass with the stone allows for light to pass through the figures and for what I hope embodies the spiritual and physical essence of human nature into each sculpture. By marrying fire and materials of earth with the modern process of casting glass, there is a fusion of composition and chance.”
