About the Artist

Artist Statement

I view life as a journey with an attitude that you can never give up. My art is drawings and paintings in both digital media and acrylics. My images are painted on canvas, or reproduced as giclée prints. I keep several themes going on at the same time that drive the subject matter for each piece. Some pieces are expressionistic that draw from historical art periods, such as Celtic Art or the Arts and Crafts Movement. I also create impressionistic pieces based on classic themes such as still lifes, landscapes, and portraits.

Each piece I create starts with a camera or a computer. The camera captures the still lifes, people, and places that form the basis for every piece. The computer generates abstract or thematic images, often based on programs I coded, that will become the building blocks for my expressionistic work. Digital media pieces are created in Corel’s Painter program, using a Wacom tablet. Other works are acrylics on stretched canvas. No matter the media, each piece is all about layers, lines, and colors. I think of the process as a visual counterpoint. I want to express a visual complexity, where every square inch of the canvas has a wonder of layers of all types of lines and colors, all working together in harmony.

I’ve always been inspired by music, whether it’s a Mozart concerto or the Rolling Stones. Music takes me to a different place, and it’s somewhere I can visualize. Music drives my work, and I have to have something playing when creating. I see the notes, melodies, and harmonies as lines, brush strokes, and bold colors. I’m driven to capture these images. I like to start each piece on a foundation, whether it’s an image from Celtic Art, a family member, or a simple image of a flower. I keep in mind some historical inspiration, such as Fauvism, especially Maurice de Vlamink, and post-war abstract expression. I then go from there and take the piece wherever it needs to go.

Biography

Thomas Suchyta was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. He fell in love with art in high school, and then continued his art education with a BFA from the University of Michigan in 1985. He developed a passion for sculptural ceramics and then studied with Suzanne Stephenson at Eastern Michigan University, earning his MFA in 1988. He continued to live in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area in the early 1990’s, spending time working as a ceramic instructor at The Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. Later, he moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and began to paint photo-realistic landscapes of the area.

Thomas then began a career change. He earned two computer science degrees at Michigan Technological University and began a career as a software engineer. He found the challenges of software equally creative as his art and this would eventually lead him to explore ways to combine these two, seemingly different, fields.

Recently, Thomas started drawing again in digital media. He also started writing computer programs that could help create the images he envisioned. He has built a new painting studio, creating expressionistic works in both digital media and acrylics. Future plans include larger canvases and building a new ceramic studio.