Tom Armbruster

BACKGROUND

I grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My high school art teacher, Paul Zellem, encouraged my natural tendency to invent with form and experiment with processes and materials. It was great.

During my undergraduate and masters degree studies, I was fortunate to have worked with many capable faculty/artists at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. One teacher, Henry Halem, stands out as having a major impact on my education. Henry's energy and enthusiasm about his own sculptural work carried over into the classes he taught. The visual character of his work never directly influenced my artwork, but his thorough knowledge of the subject combined with his insistence that his students develop their own visual ideas was a powerful combination. As his students, we always felt that we were simply less experienced artists working along side of him in the same studio, each following their own path of investigation.

CREDENTIALS

• B.F.A, Kent State University, M.F.A., Kent State University, Sculpture Studio - Hudson, Ohio
• Fine & Performing Arts Faculty 1983 - present - Western Reserve Academy

TEACHING

My three years teaching as a graduate assistant at Kent State University informed me that no two students are the same and that every class has a different chemistry. In my teaching I try to be helpful with students by sharing my knowledge and love for making art, while allowing them to develop their own ideas, to take risks and become self critical.

I have a great time with the classes I teach at Western Reserve Academy. Although most all of my artwork is done at my home studio, the 3D Art Room where I teach in the Knight Fine Arts Center is a spacious new facility set up as a three dimensional design studio for students and faculty. Students come and go through the day working when they have time, often exchanging ideas with other student/artists scheduled to be in the 3D Art Room.

My beginning classes work with plaster, clay sculpture, pottery, and wood. They are introduced to 3-D CAD software for makerspace designing. Advanced students may also work with stone carving, plastic, wood, and sheet metal fabricating, advanced ceramic techniques for the wheel and hand building. Students have the opportunity to advance their Design skills in the Maker Space.

i WANDER

i Wander is a web resource for student/artists to begin an on-line exploration of current work being done in three dimensional art and design. Built into the iWander web page, in the left column, is a timeline with examples from the history of three dimensional art that go back to our pre-history. Each individual's path of investigation with iWander will be different and hopefully help to build an understanding of conceptual contexts involved in making art.