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Seduced by Craftsmanship: Tomasula on Paint (and Painting)
A chance meeting with maintenance staff allowed Maria Tomasula, Michael P. Grace Associate Professor of Arts and Letters, to request that the eastern wall of her office be painted a deep shade of fuchsia rather than the regulation eggshell.
“I just love that color,” she says, gesturing at the wall where several pictures hang—among them a self-portrait done by Frida Kahlo. Sheer multihued curtains cover her windows, and the furniture in her office is colorful and comfortable, reflective of one seeking to merge the concerns of the intellect with those of the heart.
“Tomasula’s compositions emerge from a complex arrangement of objects that symbolize both the corporeal and the cognitive, passion and logic,” says Chicago curator and critic John Brunetti. Tomasula, voted Best Established Artist in Chicago 2005 by Chicago Artists’ News, grew up in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Chicago. She employs her passion for technique to integrate the sensual, vibrant images that filled her childhood with so-called “higher concepts,” creating work that is luminously captivating.
“I try to be aware of my motivations and the traditions I’m working within because I’m so seduced by craftsmanship,” says Tomasula, whose tenure in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design began 10 years ago. “I feel very well-supported here; I can make the kind of images I want without interference. Out of that security comes a sense of freedom.”
Tomasula’s work has been exhibited across the country in 15 individual and numerous group exhibitions. Her paintings will be displayed throughout 2006 as part of the traveling exhibition Pintores y Poetas, organized by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies and the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership at St. Mary's College. The exhibit, on display at St. Mary's College until March 3, will also be shown at venues in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tomasula currently teaches “Beginning Painting and Figure Drawing” to undergraduates, sharing her intense interest in technique—from the archival quality of materials to the traditional ways of painting to the techniques of the masters—with her students.
“I want them to leave my class with a basic skill set,” she says. “They’re so bright and full of vitality, so aware of technology and things in our world that are changing. Their energy creates an exciting atmosphere.”
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