When I first arrived in Carbondale I knew not…Altho I was uniquely prepared for Tom’s Intellectual onslaught, i.e. coming from a scientific background and a family of deep discussions. So perhaps I was less intimidated than most.

The pressure to think as well as to create was the power of the program.  It wasn’t a conceptual space, it was a project imbued with the importance of the object. I did not arrive with a personal aesthetic…but I left with one. And that aesthetic continues to this day.

I’ll relate one story. Graduation loomed and I needed a letter of recommendation. Finding Tom at “The Art Party” in some magical state of inebriation, not to mention skin-tight leather jeans, I reluctantly handed him a note with this request. Returning to my studio the next day at 7am, with a 12 pack of beer ready to do the battle of making sculpture, I found a 2 page, hand typed recommendation, written specifically for my needs. Pre-computor and pre AI, this was just one of Tom’s unique abilities.

The typewriter typed out the “o”s, leaving a hole. It was Tom’s intellect and drive that we were all a part of, and we left to take on the world.