Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts | Artists

Artists

Tom McMillin

Tom McMillin is a sea captain, ceramist and installation artist. The artist cites a profound impact on his art from growing up on a farm and becoming the youngest licensed Coast Guard Captain on the West Coast at 18. His father contributed to his "great appreciation of the soil" and a mentor captain - with "great respect for the sea" - pushed him to higher education "to become excellent in the thing I loved the most."

After graduating with an MFA in Ceramics from USC, McMillin set up a studio and made a living as an artist full time with accounts throughout the United States and showrooms in Los Angeles and New York. The artist moved to teaching to have more "free time to pursue more creative goals, and more time at sea to play Captain."

Chalice
Chalice
Luster fired ceramic | 7.25" h x 7.25" dia
850.

His work has been exhibited at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, PS1 in New York and the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada.

"My art has been devoted to process and environmental concerns. My installations have dealt with laminar flow, sedimentation, erosion, magnetic fields and various other natural phenomena. My goal is to point out the intrinsic beauty within these natural systems."