Some of the earliest works of art made by people were animals drawn or painted on the wall of caves. Recently discovered cave art from Indonesia, shows human-animal hybrid figures, warty pigs, and dwarf buffaloes and has been dated to nearly 44,000 years old! Animals have long inspired artists, from those ancient cave-dwellers, to monks … Continue reading Creature Feature: An Online Animal Art Exhibition
Sonja Blomdahl has been working in glass for over forty years. Her vessels are based on classical traditional forms, symmetrical in shape with clean, spare lines. A specialist in the incalmo, or double bubble, glassblowing technique, she layers different colors of glass to create rich hues that shift in intensity as light moves through them. … Continue reading Object of the Week – Untitled white and pink vessel
Ginny Ruffner is an internationally known artist based in Seattle who creates works in a variety of media including painting, metalworking, and glass. Ruffner received her MFA from the University of Georgia in 1975. Her glass sculptures helped popularize the field of lampworked glass art worldwide. In fact, Ruffner is credited as introducing the use … Continue reading Object of the Week – The Juggler of My Heart in Person
If you have been outdoors anywhere in Tacoma, you have seen public art. From the amazing Prairie Line Trail to the environmental sculptures at the new Dune Peninsula, Tacoma has been making art accessible for decades. As TAM opened Forgotten Stories: Northwest Public Art of the 1930s, which looks broadly at the public art in … Continue reading The Art in Your Backyard: Public Art in Tacoma
At Tacoma Art Museum, we believe that all students are artists, with the power to make meaning by viewing and creating works of art. Through creative expression, artists express the realities & possibilities of communities, society, & the world. Is the artist in your life needing a bit of inspiration? Check out some of our … Continue reading Keeping Young Artists Active at Home: Education Resources from Around the Globe
March is Youth Art Month! Youth Art Month was created in 1961 to emphasize the value of participating in visual arts education. Art is essential for the full development of better quality of life for all; it helps youth learn critical and creative thinking and build empathy. In addition to celebrating the visual arts, Youth … Continue reading Celebrate Youth Art Month
In ancient Greek mythology, Persephone was the goddess of vegetation and was abducted by Hades, the ruler of the underworld. Ancient Romans adopted her cult. In this work, Nancy Mee takes the Greek and Roman myths and uses them to examine contemporary ideas regarding feminine beauty. Transferring photographs of the Baroque sculpture of the abduction … Continue reading Object of the Week – Reconstruction of Pluto and Persephone
Have you ever seen someone skin a rabbit? I watched the artist Christine M. Babic remove the fur from a rabbit carcass as part of an art performance and it inspired me to rethink an exhibition that I was working on about John James Audubon.[1] As the Haub Curator of Western Art at Tacoma Art … Continue reading The Tail of the Tale: The Origin of The Naturalist & The Trickster: Audubon/RYAN!
Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace developed their now widely recognizable large fruit sculptures to reflect ideas of abundance, nature, and the rhythm of life. “We needed a symbol; we needed a symbol of the fulfillment of life and the expected year-in-and-year-out of that symbol,” said Mace in an interview with Lloyd E. Herman for the … Continue reading Object of the Week: Greengage Plum
Cappy Thompson first began working with glass when she assisted in a small glass studio in Olympia, Washington. When she moved back to Seattle in the early 1980s, she was invited to begin teaching and creating work at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood. There she became interested in techniques for painting stained-glass windows and glass … Continue reading Object of the Week – “I Receive a Great Blessing from the Sun and the Moon: I Will Be an Artist and Walk the Path of Beauty”
