Vessels & Views: Natural Reality | Sally Rose & Tom Tomasek

Virtual Tour

Exhibition & Events

January 12 - February 23, 2021

Reception: Sat, January 23, 11 AM - 3 PM

Virtual Artist Talk: Thurs. February 11, 12 - 12:30 PM

- The video of the artist talk can be found here.

Exhibition sponsored by Dan & Bonnie Warmels.

Artist Bio

Tom is an award winning landscape artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Tom often works en plein air and works on his own and also has participated in programs such as the Great Lakes Bay Plein Air Festival. Tom teaches at such institutions such as Interlochen and the Saginaw Art Museum. Tom resides in Ovid, MI.

Sally taught fiber arts and paper making for over 30 years at Central Michigan University where she is now Professor Emerita. She combined studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago with world travels before completing a BFA from Colorado State University and an MFA from Indiana University.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in Canada, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland. She received an honorable award at the Cheongju International Craft Competition, Korea. Artwork is in various collections including the Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, and the Budapest Museum of Art. Sculptures are included in the Lark book series, 500 Paper Objects. She currently teaches workshops and continues to exhibit nationally and internationally. Sally resides in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Artist Statement

Our work plays off of each other in exploring nature—Tom’s work takes the larger view of the landscape while Sally’s moves in closer to imaginary structures that might be found in nature.

"While growing up in rural Michigan, I was instilled with an appreciation for the land that surrounds us. I feel my mission as a landscape painter is to document these places. The work produced in pastel is done both plein air and in the studio. Whether it is the spectacular views around the Great Lakes or the more ordinary places we pass by every day, I feel they are all important. The paintings are a way for me to return to a place and possibly take other viewers there also." - Tom Tomasek

"The questions that fuel Sally’s art practice are process-oriented experiments with materials and sculptural form. Making paper by hand allows a way to work directly with plants and to satisfy a penchant for observing and collecting natural objects. Specific plants are cooked, beaten to a pulp, manipulated and dried which transforms them into paper, both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional. Colors, textures, biomorphic forms turn the experimental artifacts into artifictions to question." - Sally Rose