Artist Statement
Landscapes, flora and fauna are heliotropes. Heliotropes are interesting ubiquitous verities found in nature. Like heliotropes, human truths, the ultimate story of our lives are also attracted to whatever feeds and nurtures us. This phenomenon is beyond a natural law; it is the inexplicable shape of our existence.
In my work patterns, layering, flowers, plants and figuration are metaphors for these blueprints of existence. The work itself is a result of an internal heliotrope following the transformation of a painting, drawing, sound installation, photograph, performance or collaboration through the process not unlike the phenomenon of natural laws. I approach process like a “code”, as a “personal paradigm” or descriptor of time and as a vehicle of evolution. Similarly the garden metaphor works as an expression of this code, a meditation on color events, focus and subjugation, air as breath and complexity as mystery. Finally the heliotrope is the expression of transformation, variation and a node where individual heliotropic identities collide and intersect.
The desire to make an image is a practice that helps me to describe our world. Interpersonal relations and our place on this planet are sacred yet also profane. My work is an expression of both, but one filtered through my experience. Yet defining through imagery, the very act of defining is a convergent process, one that is ultimately limiting. Human experience teeters between the definitions of clarity and the abstractness of experience. Our interactions are not unlike layers of heliotrope patterns that interrelate and resonate but are mutable, changeable and at times converge and others diverge, but they are always entwined within complex configurations.
Color and space are important. Color is also heliotropic. A painting changes in the way nature changes. Color is responsive and to one thing or another. It is much more important to respond than react. In art that favors concept, elements are also often responsive but occasionally reactive to current political and social ideologies that are important in the work.
The role of an artist must include a conscience. The need to say something, to offer a viewpoint for consideration is almost primal and also necessary. Works in sound or video add new dimensions to my pursuit, empowering the exploration of form. Much of this work investigates fixed ego identities and allows me to add unforeseen dimensions to my research and exploration of both idea and form. I believe an artist constantly seeks to unveil not only personal truths, but also the same truths that create the heliotropic nature of existence. Each new work mines a slightly new exploration or a miniscule facsimile of this nature. I consider this my journey, though admittedly, I favor the search over the “truth”
Artist's Biography
Thomas Murray earned his Masters in Fine Arts degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 2004. He was born in Saint Petersburg Florida and is married to Jewelry/ Metalsmith Donna Mason Sweigart. The artist couple have collaborated several times over the past years and their own disciplines while entering into collaborative projects, most recently “Compersion” at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in 2021.
Thomas and Donna moved to Glassboro, NJ in 2019 to work with Rowan University. Thomas is continuing his research with painting, sound, and installation.
Education
2003
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
MFA, Painting and Drawing
1996
University of South Florida, Hillsborough County, FL
BS, Fine Art and Art Education
Magna Cum Laude
Awards & Honors
2016
44th International Art Show, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, TX
1st Place Painting Award
2000
Awarded Florida Artists Fellowship
Residencies
2018
Arquetopia, Puebla, Mexico
2014
Arte Studio Ginestrella, Assisi, Italy
Bibliography
2016
"UTRGV Instructors Combine Works to Form Annual Exhibit", Brownsville Herald, Brownsville, TX
"GARDEN VIEW: Celebrating native plants and more", The Monitor, McAllen, TX, Oct. 8
"SURFACE TREATMENT: Artist’s talent comes alive in latest exhibit", The Monitor, McAllen, TX,
2014
Valley Life, “Murray’s Eden”, The Monitor, McAllen, TX
2013
“Open Season for Art”, Serena Pandos Gallery, The Monitor, McAllen, TX, Sept 9th,
SURFACE TREATMENT, “A Mad Mix”, The Monitor, McAllen, TX Feb 4th,
2012
SURFACE TREATMENT, “It’s Sacred”, The Monitor, McAllen, TX
2008
Texas Monthly
2007
The Monitor, McAllen, TX
Saint Petersburg Times
Weekly Planet
2006
Creative Loafing
2005
Saint Petersburg Times
2000
Art Papers
Publications
2014
"This is Our Garden", Catalogue, by Thomas Murray, ISBN-13: 978-1496008343
2009
“Painter” The Works of Thomas Murray” by Anthony Crisafulli, Twadell Press, ISBN 1449547001
Select Permanent Collections
Public
Rio Grande Valley College, large scale mural
Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art, Saint Petersburg, FL
Rise Foundation, Savannah, GA
Canson Inc, 21 Industrial Drive, South Hadley, MA
Gulfcoast Art Museum, Largo, FL
Recently Purchased by Saint Petersburg College
Private
Leiden, Holland
Tampa, FL
2014
Arte Studio Ginestrelle, Assisi, Italia
Commissions
Untitled, 13'x 66', acrylic directly on wall
Commissioned by Lumina Designs for RGV Careers
Professional Experience
2019 - Present
Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
Lecturer, 3/4
2016 - 2019
University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, TX
Lecturer, Full Time
2010 - 2015
South Texas College, McAllen, TX
Instructor, Full Time
2009 - 2010
South Texas College, McAllen, TX
Adjunct Art Instructor
2009
South Texas College, McAllen, TX
Lecturer
2008 - 2009
University of Texas–Pan American, Edinburg, TX
Lecturer
