BOLD JOURNEY - Meet Tom Chambers
Meet Tom Chambers - Bold Journey Magazine
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tom Chambers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tom, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
To keep creativity alive, never put down the paint brush, or in my case, the camera. It is always at my side and through thick and thin. It is the beacon that inspires and guides me through a continuous process. It is my tool and companion.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Sometimes I put my camera down … but never aside … to pursue the Digital Arts … to work with the pixel as Digital Suprematism and Geometric Abstraction.
During the early 2000s, I began to look at the pixel within the context of Suprematist and Geometric Abstractionist art. I equated the pixel with the works of non-objective artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Josef Albers, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Piet Mondrian and others. They generated works to establish an abstract visual language of the sublime, pure color, geometric form, deep contemplation and metaphysical pursuit of the truth. The pixels or “Pixelscapes” – as I call them – conform with many of these non-objective artists’ works. They are a revelation for me when compared to these non-objective works generated many years before the pixel and Digital Revolution.
My current project is derived from pixel configurations, and they stem from digitized reproductions of Kazimir Malevich’s early works prior to his Suprematism and “Black Square”. They are magnified, filtered and precisely isolated to provide geometric abstractions within color-field settings. These “Pixelscapes” are brought to the forefront to celebrate Malevich’s latent and ultimate creativity which gave way to Suprematism with the display of “Black Square” and other works in 1915 as part of the Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10.
These pixel configurations are brought out large-scale. This method not only conjures up Suprematism, Geometric Abstraction, Minimalism and Color-field for consideration, but also calls forth emotions, feelings, and responses in the viewer. They have a geometrical advantage due to their inherent, quadrilateral formatting. In combination, they provide grids, planes and juxtapositions of color. And the color scheme is in situ (natural), because of the source image.
https://digsup.my.canva.site/
I will have a solo exhibition based on this project at The Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, Texas), August-September, 2024. I am very happy about this since Midwestern State University is my alma mater. I graduated from there in 1969. The university is near my hometown (Nocona, Texas) where family and friends live and work.
https://digsup.my.canva.site/dsgawfmamsu
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One very impactful aspect of my artistic career is my encounter with Harvey Bott, an abstract sculptor and painter. I had a working relationship with him back in the 1970s documenting (photo) his work. I consider him my mentor and the reason why I pursue Geometric Abstraction today.
I have an extensive library of Photography and Arts books, and this documentation has kept me abreast and inspired me over the years. I never tire of turning the pages of these wonderful print stimulants.
And persistence has carried me through the years to always be positive and strong-willed about who I am and what I do as a creative human being.
My advice for people who are at the beginning of their journey is to:
pay attention;
take everything in;
network and collaborate;
never waver.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
There are always challenges, and I feel that the number one challenge for you as an artist … particularly as it relates to showing/exhibiting your work … is to help/convince others (the power base) that your work has merit and deserves a wider audience.
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