Tom Wright
Mixed Media Paintings
2016 Gallery Showing
SADDLEBACK COLLEGE LIBRARY
TOM WRIGHT’S ART EXHIBITION 2016
Orange County(Mobius Gallery) 2/26/16–Saddleback College is a community college in Mission Viejo, California, United States. As a part of the California Community College system. The college’s Art Gallery is one of South Orange County’s primary outlets for creative expression in traditional and conceptual art.
OPENING Gallery Reception
APRIL 1st 2016
2:00pm to 4:00pm
28000 Marguerite Pkwy, Mission Viejo, CA 92692
Wolf at The Door, 18 x 12 inches Folded Manila Paper
The Target, Mied Media, 17 x 12 inches Manila Paper, Folded Paper
SADDLEBACK LIBRARY GALLERY SHOWING 2016
“LINES & LEVELS OF WRIGHT’S WORLD”
A Review of the Art of Tom Wright
By Michael Cohan
On April 1 at Saddleback College we weren’t fooled by the local artists’ repertoire of paintings depicting a number of art themes. Presented by The Emeritus Institute of Extended Learning affiliated with the college, local, selected artists were able to display their work. The paintings were placed throughout Saddleback College’s beautiful Library. In actuality, the library also serves as an art gallery. It is one of south Orange County’s primary outlets for creative expression in conceptual and traditional art.
The emerging Orange County, CA artist, Tom Wright, exhibited three examples from his catalogue of paintings that were created over his lifetime. This artist has been attracting a lot of attention lately due to his “think outside of the box” approach to abstract art.
His abstract entitled “The Wolf at the Door” may unlock your fear of the unknown by focusing on the wolf’s menacing image at the door to your world, peeping through the door blinds. On further evaluation there seems to be a faceless image with an orange hat that makes the viewer question whether or not the wolf is on the inside, and the orange faceless image is looking in! We don’t know, what an eerie and scary feeling; it made our hair stand up!
Tom will often combine many worlds in his paintings and may even incorporate more lines and levels to keep the gallery of people guessing where he’s going with his art, leaving much to the viewer’s interpretation.
An example of Tom’s sense of creating three-dimensional levels seems to be uncovered in the piece called “Navajo Kachina Doll”, evolving the doll as a Navajo. He depicts the doll as a visitor of sorts positioned under the body of an airplane that is poised on a pyramid-like building of ancient times. Tom’s use of color brings out this special feeling. You can feel the “sacred knowledge” flowing because the doll is dressed in a helmet with horns antennas on the sides. You know just by a glance that the artist has much going on to illicit these sensations that could only be expressed with his “Not of this World” style of art.
Another one of Tom’s creations is “The Target” which depicts a coiled black line and a somewhat bull-headed painting that his art teacher Evgenia Willis mentioned to me as she, Tom and I continued our tour. Evgenia and I talked about Tom’s effective use of bright colors and that his paintings are a definite reflection of his “In the Sky” personality. “The Target” is all about being singled out like a face in the crowd, a face that has a nose like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, but a Tony the Tiger-like look which highlights its face, its being. Tom adds “All of a sudden you can become an overnight sensation – just like Rudolph, Tony, or whatever you may be dreaming of.”
This artist’s “out of this world” art provokes thought between virtual reality and animation. He is a master at creating lines and then misdirecting the viewer with different levels that make them rethink the path or journey of the images in question; what do you see?
To see them all immerse yourself into Tom’s world of abstract mix media, please visit his website:
Mobius Gallery Artist
Tom Wright
http://www.mobiusgallery.net/tomwright.htm
TOM WRIGHT’S ART FASHIONS
http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/tom-wright