THOMAS SCOON

Tom Scoon, Lenox, MA. with private commission.

Thomas Scoon received his Masters of Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art in 1990 and a Bachelor of Fine Art from Illinois State University in 1988. He has taught sculpture at University of New Hampshire, Massachusetts College of Art and Pilchuck School. He was a recipient of a NEA Grant in Sculpture in 1999.

From quarries and fields Scoon chooses stones in shapes of heads and torsos to create abstract figurative sculpture combined with cast glass. They can range from pedestal to life size works. These figures are often grouped to create dialogue between them and often as family or generational relationships.

Thomas Scoon’s work is in numerous museum, corporate and collections including the Art in the Embassy Program, US State Department, Washington, DC.

Statement from the Artist

“In my work, I create figures from sequences of stone and glass. The figures rise up 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.

The figures range in scale from larger-than-life to those under twelve inches. Given the range of scale and opportunity to group figures together, there are layers of interpersonal drama, gender, and generational concerns. The combination of materials expresses both the fragility and enduring qualities of humanity. I believe the figures are universal in that they speak directly to what is elemental rather than superficial about us and our relationships to others. These qualities of spirit are nearly indefinable, those qualities that we share in our immediate lives as well as through a common human history, but it is what I want to capture in some small measure.

The “Entwines” cast bronze tree branch sculptures explore ideas between nature and mankind’s reliance on the environment. By casting tree branches in bronze my figures seem to emerge and grow out of these living branches. Entwined in this growth my figures become couples who are being pulled together and merged in a union by the bronze branches and cast leaves. The figures seem ready to bloom in life through the dynamics of human relationships, birth, and nature. I hope they suggest a family lineage in our relationship to mankind and also to the natural world.”

Grants & Awards, Corporate and Public Art

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, FL. 2010
Finalist for New Hampshire Legacy Fund for Old Man on the Mountain Commission, 2007
Northwater Capital Management, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2003
Rose Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2002
Talisker Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2000
Newquant Capital, New York, NY 1998
Keyport Insurance Co. Boston MA 1990
New Hampshire Artist Fellowship/ NEA Sculpture: 1999
Whirlpool Figurative Sculpture Award: 1988

Museum & University Exhibitions

2016 “Nature of Glass,” Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA

2015 “Cutting Edge,” A new Perspective on Glass, Sandwich Glass Museum, Sandwich, MA

2014 “Glass Today: 21st-Century Innovations,” New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

2012 “Contemporary/Anthropological,” Burchfield Penny Art Museum, Buffalo State University, Buffalo NY
“Haverty Collection of Studio Glass,” Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile AL
“Into the Light,” Illinois Glass, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford IL
“Spark and Flame” 50 yrs of Art Glass, Chazen Museum of Art, Univ. of Wisconsin

2001 “Celebration in Glass,” Bachman Gallery, Northern Indiana University

2000 “Millennium Glass: An International Survey,” Kentucky Art & Craft Foundation, Louisville, KY

1999 “The Art of Glass,” Kleen Gallery, Elgin College, Elgin, IL

1998 “A Passion for Glass,” Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI

1997 “Blowing Hot, Cutting Cold: 35th Anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement,” Lakeview Museum of Arts, Peoria, IL
“Glorious Glass: American & European Art Glass,” Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, Owensboro, KY

1996 “Nine Artist / Nine Visions,” DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA

1993 “Glassforms,” Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA

1992 “Contemporary Glass of Massachusetts College of Art,” Sandwich Glass Museum, Sandwich, MA

1991 “Studio Glass: Selections from the Chordokoff Collection,” Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI

1987 “Young Glass International,” Glasmuseum, Ebeltoff, Denmark
“Whirlpool Foundation Sculpture Exhibition,” Krasel Art Center, St Joseph, MO

Publications

“Thomas Scoon Dialogues” Hard Cover Book, 2011
“Absolutely Visionary” Where Chicago Magazine: July 2001
“Sculpting a Name for Himself” Concord Monitor: April 1999
“Marx-Saunders Features Scoon Sculpture” Daily Herald: July 1997
“Review” Pittsburgh Post Gazette: 5/ 31/ 97
“Portfolio” American Craft Magazine: November Issue 1995
“Vital Connections” Gay Chicago Magazine: August Issue 1994
“Review” The New Art Examiner: October Issue 1994
“Glass Motif” The Villager: 4/14/ 93
“Review” Glass Magazine: Spring Issue 1992
“Review” The Boston Globe: 7 /19/ 90
“Corning New Glass Review” #6, #9 & #10

Collections

Private Collection, Kingdom of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia
Art in the Embassy Program, US State Department, DC
Detroit Institute of Arts, Chordorkoff Collection, Detroit, MI
Glassmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Detroit Institute of Arts, Robinson Collection, Detroit, MI