Thomas Arthur Schaefer
Atlanta, Georgia
Artist, designer, programmer, photographer, experimental musician — Thomas Arthur Schaefer was born on Valentines Day, during the ensuing chaos of one of the deadliest blizzards to ever hit the city of Buffalo, New York — The Blizzard of '77.
Thomas brings a diverse background to the fine art world, having designed and directed creative for leading Fortune 500 companies where his fine art background and adeptness enabled him to look beyond the contrived ideas of every day to develop stunning solutions. By the time he was 16, he'd accumulated numerous awards and had several collections positioning to acquire his work — all while quietly filling an apprenticeship inking comic books for Marvel and DC. At age 20, he studied portraiture with the Chinese master sculptor Wei Ning Song and continued to focus his efforts in the fields of illustration and photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Schaefer's upbringing in all fields of the arts, which also include instruction in dance, theatre, and film.
Working steadily, hidden away in his studio, he continues to produce several hundred new works each year. His working methods fall under several idioms of art production including Process, Conceptual, Arte Povera, Pop, Correspondence, Performance, and Film. His work has been exhibited across the country, and he maintains a broad set of dedicated collectors and a small cult following in the mail art domain. His shows have often been said to twist the comfortable confines of regular gallery exhibitions and have left some viewers feeling disoriented, elated, lost and even outraged — ask a former presidential couple.
His work has been described as acutely mature, intellectually nuanced, sometimes controversial, but always invariably his own. When talking about his working process he has said, "I don't want to make a painting, I want to make 20 and see where the variation is — the similarities and differences. What you discover during a process of doing the same thing over and over again is a variance that leads to new areas. The variations are the art of process that takes you to new invention."