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Tom and his Supro (another obsession)
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Tom d. is an internationally recognized, self taught artist who has been showing his work since the mid 1970's. Born in 1951, he was raised in a conservative, religious environment. As a teenager he joined the 60's counterculture, resisted the draft and protested the Vietnam war. He worked for a couple of years as a x-ray technician in a hospital, and following that took a factory job. By the time he was in his mid 20's he was searching for a new direction in his life and began painting in earnest. His first show was in the late 70's at the Race Street Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI.
By 1980, Tom was focused on painting and was also working in clay and creating 3-D wall sculptures. Throughout the 1980's he was painting constantly and found it to be increasingly difficult to balance everyday life with his artistic drive. He still held a day job as a supervisor of a custodial crew at Calvin College as a way to support his family. He reached a point in 1985, when he decided to make the transition to being a full time artist. One of the galleries he was showing at was Art Mecca in Chicago where he was part of a group show with Howard Finster, Mose Tolliver, William Dawson, Inez Nathaniel Walker and James Harold Jennings. That was in the mid 80's, and it served to place Tom in the category of being an Outsider artist. His work has always contained many autobiographical and confessional elements and that seemed to add to the classification as well.
During the 1990's, Tom showed work at various galleries throughout the U.S ,had work shown in Paris, and was in a show with Andy Warhol in the Netherlands. By the year 2000, he had developed a reputation as an outsider artist, but was working in a somewhat different direction. Tom began working more in 3-D found object assemblage, being especially drawn to the raw nature of rusted metal. Even his paintings took on a more subdued color palette. Painting and creating are what keep him going...and he'll continue to do so as long as he is able.
Many Thanks to all the art lovers and collectors who keep us artists going, and allow us to do what we do.
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Melissa Arpin Duimstra (MAd.)
Melissa collected ants, caterpillars and toads as a child in a desperate attempt to have a pet. She lived in a cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water in her early twenties, where she made friends with a herd of cows and raised her own animals for food, after which she promptly became a vegetarian. She was a wild animal rehabilitator, a blacksmith and farrier, and was a genuine cowgirl. She has trained zebras, a zorse (1/2 horse and 1/2 zebra) and a camel that she met while painting a mural for the owner. For many years she was a caretaker on a 40 acre horse ranch, where she shared an apartment in the barn with the horses.
Art has been passed down the generations in her family from her great grandfather to her grandfather, who were both furniture designers and prolific painters. She spent hours in her grandfather's studio as a child, painting and woodworking. She has received much schooling in the pursuit of a "real" career and has a BS in psychology and did post graduate studies in creative writing, psychology and law before she made the decision to follow her real passion and become a full time artist. Along the way she has been a certified horseshoer, a Doula, a sex ed teacher, lead singer for the indie band "Lovesliescrushing", a wrangler at an Arizona dude ranch, and a beaded jewelry designer.
When asked about her creative process she says " Jump in with an idea, make a mess, confront problems, lose sleep, pace, drink coffee, eat chocolate, apply paint, scrape it off, apply more paint, "Why, why why?", Stare at the lovely dilapidated rafters in my studio, paint some more, begin to feel there may be hope, re-organize paints, sweep the floor, paint again, more coffee, more chocolate, sleep deprived delirium, paint, scrape, paint, aha!, answer the question, begin again."
She met Tom d. in 2000 when they where both working on a community art project. Melissa reflects " I always thought Tom was a great painter and an interesting person, and found myself feeling very pleased whenever we would end up at an art show or working on a project together. It wasn't until 2004 that we began sharing studio space, and after a few months of working side by side everyday, it was like being hit upside the head...we both realized we had finally found our match. Since then we've expanded our family with two lovely and wild daughters. We work out of our home studio and often collaborate, passing work back and forth. Our life is sometimes crazy... but always interesting!
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