Tom Woodhouse speaks

Sunday, June 22, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Local artist and art teacher Tom Woodhouse has been commissioned to do a large mural in Colorado. In an interview with Planet Jackson Hole, Woodhouse talks about his new commission, thinking big, and drawing like a kid.

Planet Jackson Hole: Tell me about the mural you will be painting in the outskirts of Denver.

Tom Woodhouse: A guy who develops commercial property became interested in my work and started buying it this winter. As a result, he’s given me the opportunity to do a public painting for the city of Lakewood, Colo. It’s going to be a ’50s theme with cars and a diner and my figures. The painting will be somewhere around 10 feet by 40 feet. I hope to spend the month of July painting it.

PJH: Are you just going to go down there with a ladder and a bunch of acrylic paint?

TW: Damn right, pretty much.

PJH: When you first took your small sketches to a large scale, you painted huge murals. Then you reduced your paintings to a size that can be hung on a wall. Is this commission bringing your art full circle?

TW: Well, it’s nice. I’ve always wanted to paint in that size. It’s nice to have the opportunity to paint that size someplace that I don’t have to roll it up and put it in the closet. That’s where my other eight murals are - in a closet. This one will just hang on the wall, and everybody will see it.

PJH: Is this a breakthrough experience for you, to have your art shown in such a public place?

TW: I’m not sure it means anything more than I’m just making a big painting. It’s nice to have someone offer me the space and financial backing in order to make this happen. This is the first time someone’s completely understood my vision for what I think my artwork can be.

PJH: What is that vision?

TW: All my work is pretty small. In addition to this mural, he wants to build my sculptures on a huge level. When I make a 9-inch wire figure, it’s just a model for a 40-foot public sculpture, and that’s just the way I’ve thought about it since I was a kid, because I watched Alexander Calder place a huge sculpture in the main square of my hometown back in the early ’70s. In my eyes sculptures are that big.

PJH: You often go back and forth between painting and sculpture, and focus heavily on one medium for a period of time. Why?

TW: It has to do with the restrictions of different mediums. You have to adjust to whatever different mediums allow you to do. It’s a very good way to facilitate the evolution of an image. Since each material has its own limitations, shifting from one to another forces me out of my own comfort zones, and comfort zones, when you’re making art, mean you are making the same thing over and over again.

PJH: You mentioned Alexander Calder earlier, are there any other artists who have had a big impact on your style?

TW: Everyone who came before me. I think it’s important to understand who did what, and why they did it, in order for me to create my own voice. So I work hard to continue to study art history, but I’ve probably learned the most from all the first graders I’ve ever taught. They have the ability to create art with complete freedom and complete joy. My favorite quote from an artist is from Picasso, who said, “It took me 90 years to learn how to draw like a child.” If I could teach every adult in my classes to draw like a child, they’d probably make a lot more progress.

PJH: Are freedom and joy the two most essential components to art?

TW: Yes. You make art for yourself; you don’t make it for someone else. If you start making it for someone else, you begin communicating a different message. I get up and make art because that’s what I’m drawn to do. I do it for myself with the hope that other people can realize there are many different visions in the world. All of them are valid.

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Tom Woodhouse speaks | Planet JH News Article: General News

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