Tom Kearcher October 24 - November 24, 2001 Over the years Tom Kearcher has rallied his artistic interests between photography, ceramics and printmaking. His initial interest in photography stemmed from a boyhood chum in Connecticut, whose father was also a photographer. Aside from this immediate influence, Kearcher's artistic interests and talents were varied. In 1975 he received his Bachelor of Science in Ceramics from the University of Oregon, after which he moved to Berkeley, California. While there, in the early 1980's, Kearcher met and studied with the allusive Czech Surrealist Vilem Kriz , who was by that time teaching at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. Spawning from this tutelage, Kriz and Kearcher would remain close friends until Kriz's death in 1994. Encouraged by his surrealist mentor, Kearcher returned to the University of Oregon for his Master of Fine Arts in Photography. Immediately following though, in 1988, he re-enrolled in the post-graduate program for Ceramics. In 1995 Kearcher contacted the famed John Goodman, who, with the generous patronage of Paul Strand's widow, had revived the art of Photogravure in the United States. Traveling to Goodman's studio and workshop in Massachusetts, Kearcher learned the antique process, and has since become a master of it. This exhibition of Tom Kearcher's photographic work will feature his Photogravure and Palladium prints. His imagery, further enhanced by the antiquated processes, are truly classical. With regards to his sumptuous Photogravures, his studies of women evoke the painterly qualities of Francisco Goya or Jacques Louis David, while his landscapes recall the purity and romanticism of Edward Curtis. The Palladium prints, whether of still-lifes or figurative studies, emulate the atmosphere of Czech masters, including Josef Sudek, and Secessionist provocateurs like Eduard Steichen. In short, Tom Kearcher is a contemporary classicist whose skill reflects that of a master craftsman. Reception for the Artist Wednesday October 24, 2001 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. First Thursday Reception November 1, 2001 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.