Tom Secrest has had his works of art exhibited at several events within the U.S. since the 1980's and has more recently donated many of his works to the Cancer Fighters Art organization as a top contributor to our cause.
Sadly, Tom passed away on April 10, 2022, but stills lives on through his most unique artwork. 

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Tom Secrest was born in Columbus, OH in 1942. He received his BFA and MFA from Ohio University in Athens, OH in 1966, and 1968 respectively. His work has been featured in a variety of exhibition, including the One Man Show, University Art Museum, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA (1998). The first International Exhibition of the National Academy fantastic Art Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (1986) and the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Prints Exhibition, Louisiana State, Baton Rouge, LA (1981). Calvin Harlan wrote about Secrest’s work in New Orleans Art review in June of 1986. His pieces are in a number of prestigious collection including the Besser collections, the print collection of The New York public Library, New York, NY. The print collection of Harlan and weaver Intaglio New York, NY. The Print Collection New Orleans Museum of Art New Orleans, LA, and the collection of the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.

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Since childhood image making has been something of a magical act and at the same time a search to dig deeper into the world of the "imagination." Imagination is seldom referred to in academic circles - in other words it has often been called "the mind's eye" or maybe "free association."

Growing up in the 1940's of course there was no digital society or world. I drew on small sample pads of paper that Grandpa Caldwell would give me. He worked as a salesman who sold printing supplies to print shops.

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Those small pads of paper were the substance which would allow me to escape from my surroundings and to fall into my own form of "Neverland" or down Alice's rabbit hole. The issue of "reality" had little interest to me. To be the dreamer and escaping person has long been my way of living.

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Since my retirement from the art department in 1998, my way of living has changed. For the past 40 years, I have thought of myself as a printmaker. Also I always drew. After retirement my images became even darker but in somehow a different way. There still exists "fantasy" but "fantasy" of a different kind. It represents a psychological reflection of me and was not only the emotional world, but also elements of the outside world.

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The world has changed and the results affect all of us. We each have personal ways to deal with this and to cope with our society and surroundings. Artists find their own ways; at least I think a lot of us are trying to do this.

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