B. 1961 -

Thomas Scoon is a contemporary artist working with glass and granite. He holds a BFA from the Illinois State University (1988) and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art (1990).

Scoon’s works suggest human figures created from sequences of stone and glass. He combines found stones with cast glass layers. The specific forms of the stones (flat with curved edges) evoke the feeling and postures of human form and the artist does little to alter the natural texture. Instead, he seeks to emphasize qualities already present.

The layering of kiln-cast glass with the stone allows the light to pass through the figures thus embodying the spiritual and physical essence of human nature in each sculpture. By marrying fire and materials of earth with the modern process of casting glass, there is a fusion of composition and chance.

Scoon’s sculptures range in scale from larger-than-life to intimate scale. The range of size presents the opportunity to group figures together, thus achieving various levels of interpersonal drama, gender and generational tension. The combination of materials expresses both the fragility and enduring qualities of humanity. The figures are universal in that they speak directly to what is elemental rather than superficial about people and their relationships.

Human figures are also incorporated into a body of work entitled “Entwines.” These wall-mounted sculptures of stone and cast bronze tree branches explore the relationship between nature and the human race. Figures seem to emerge and grow out of these almost living braches. Entwined in this growth the figures become couples who are being pulled together and merged in a union by the branches. They seem ready to bloom in life through the dynamics of human relationships, birth and nature. They suggest a family lineage in our relationship to the natural world.

Thomas Scoon’s works are in many distinguished public collections such as “Art in the Embassy Program”, US State Department, DC; Detroit Institute of Arts, Chordorkoff Collection and Robinson Collection, MI; and Glassmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark. 

He has taken part in many group and solo museum exhibitions such as “Celebration in Glass,” Bachman Gallery, northern Indiana University; “Millennium Glass: An International Survey,” Kentucky Art & Craft Foundation, Louisville, KY; “The Art of Glass,” Elgrin College, IL; “A Passion for Glass,” Detroit Institute of Art, MI and many other prestigious museum shows. His works have been reviewed in such publications as The Villager, Glass Magazine, The Boston Globe, Daily Herald and others.