Tomas Tisch
I was born into a “glass-family”, pre destined to work with this fascinating material. I love history but I have also always tried to push the envelope.
I am creative, I love photography, I love to draw and I love to travel. New tastes, new smells, a different light. All are important to me.
I ran away from the boarding school at Kramsach at age of 16, I was bored, I needed to go south, to Italy, to Florence to see Michelangelo’s “David”. I never did see the original masterwork in the Accademia Gallery but the trip was a transformative experience and I never looked back. I later hitchhiked all over Europe and I traveled overland to India. This was a time before Afghanistan was irrevocably changed by the invasion of Russian troops. I saw the Taj Mahal, I hiked in the Karakoram.
All my experiences combined into making me the artist I am today.
But life started in a small town in Austria, in a loving, supportive family.
My mother was the primary force which first encouraged my creativity and my “Wanderlust”.
In 1975, curious about studying photography, I came to the USA. This was a liberating and transformative move for me. Here I met Nathan Lyons, outstanding teacher and human being, the founder and director of the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY., then a new and unusual school for photography, video and printmaking and all aspects of visual communication.
Later, in Oakland, CA., I met Marvin Lipofsky, teacher and head of the glass program at California College of Arts and Crafts, he recognized my skills with glass and hired me to create the first “Cold-Working” program at CCAC. This work opened me to the possibility of using glass as a medium of personal expression.
My first exhibited artworks were in Video and Photography.
I received an award for my video work, “Transformative-Transfigurative-Transformations”, at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY in 1976.
I returned to Austria that year to finish my studies at the Akademie für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
I exhibited photographic work from my time in Rochester in Vienna at the gallery “Alte Schmiede”, in 1976.
1978 I returned to the USA. I was by then married to my first loving, creative wife Christina La Bue . Christina and myself decided to escape NY state winters and moved to Oakland, California.
I built my first studio in Oakland on W. 12th St., in a building owned by the Prieto family. A home to clan of artist/craftspeople, a most intriguing posse of characters especially, Esteban Prieto, Bruce Bortin and of course my business partner for 10 years Andreas Lehmann. I worked in Oakland until 1990, Christina and myself raised three amazing children, I grew as a person and artist, I showed in galleries, sold work, was included in the annual glass survey of the Corning Museum of Glass and began work as a designer, I worked with Crisa Co. in Mexico and later Steuben Glass, the crown jewel of Corning Inc., this collaboration resulted in a fabulous exhibit at Steuben Galleries on 5th Ave, in NYC. California will always have an important place in my soul.
1990 we moved back east, I worked with Steuben and built a new studio in a rural farmhouse in Jacksonville, Upstate NY. The local arts community, especially William Warmus and Peter Kahn, was very supportive, a stimulating, creative social group. During this time I taught at Pilchuck and participated at IGS, an international conferences celebrating glass which was held at Cristalex Co., in Novy Bor, in the Check Republic. I also worked with Peter Rath at Lobmayr’s. Peter was looking to reestablish the family tradition of working in the Czech Rep. especially with engravers.
In the mid 90’s I started a new studio on E. 76th St., in Manhattan
I collaborated with some of New York Cities top architects and designers. I taught at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop and found the next studio location which was quite extraordinary, a space overlooking the New York Harbor, located in an old warehouse, my view out the window was of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty! My engraving lathes had that view!
Architectural projects got bigger and more complex. Life was good, work was interesting and challenging.
Then came rheumatoid arthritis and severe immobility for a number of years. It has taken me quite some time to get back and feel confident and strong enough to produce work again.
I will always be thankful to my family and friends who helped me find a route back and to be able to create new work that I am proud of.
At present I live and work in Queens, NYC. Perhaps the most diverse of the borrows of NY City. I have the good fortune to know Mary Kuzma who seems to appreciate me coming to visit her in her studio at times. She is the light of my life and a constant source of inspiration. Who knows what the future will bring but I know that I will do some beautiful work in the hopes of making a meaningful contribution to society.
WORK HARD - BE KIND
Tomas Tisch
I was born into a “glass-family”, pre destined to work with this fascinating material. I love history but I have also always tried to push the envelope.
I am creative, I love photography, I love to draw and I love to travel. New tastes, new smells, a different light. All are important to me.
I ran away from the boarding school at Kramsach at age of 16, I was bored, I needed to go south, to Italy, to Florence to see Michelangelo’s “David”. I never did see the original masterwork in the Accademia Gallery but the trip was a transformative experience and I never looked back. I later hitchhiked all over Europe and I traveled overland to India.
This was a time before Afghanistan was irrevocably changed by the invasion of Russian troops. I saw the Taj Mahal, I hiked in the Karakoram. All my experiences combined into making me the artist I am today. But life started in a small town in Austria, in a loving, supportive family.
My mother was the primary force which first encouraged my creativity and my “Wanderlust”.I was fortunate to have met a great number of extraordinary teachers and mentors in my life. My primary school teacher, Ms. Pretul a patient and kind soul which looked past my pranks and encouraged my curiosity. My teachers, Joerg Srnka von Hohenlindegg, my teacher in art and design at Glasfachschule Kramsach, and my first spiritual guide, who introduced me to the soulful essence of artistic expression and his daughter Barbara, my teacher in art history, a child of the 60’s and a great friend and all around inspiring person.
In 1975, curious about studying photography, I came to the USA. This was a liberating and transformative move for me. Here I met Nathan Lyons, outstanding teacher and human being, the founder and director of the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY., then a new and unusual school for photography, video and printmaking and all aspects of visual communication.
Later, in Oakland, CA., I met Marvin Lipofsky, teacher and head of the glass program at California College of Arts and Crafts, he recognized my skills with glass and hired me to create the first “Cold-Working” program at CCAC. This work opened me to the possibility of using glass as a medium of personal expression.
My first exhibited artworks were in Video and Photography.
I received an award for my video work, “Transformative-Transfigurative-Transformations”, at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY in 1976.
I returned to Austria that year to finish my studies at the Akademie für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
I exhibited photographic work from my time in Rochester in Vienna at the gallery “Alte Schmiede”, in 1976.
1978 I returned to the USA. I was by then married to my first loving, creative wife Christina La Bue . Christina and myself decided to escape NY state winters and moved to Oakland, California.
I built my first studio in Oakland on W. 12th St., in a building owned by the Prieto family. A home to clan of artist/craftspeople, a most intriguing posse of characters especially, Esteban Prieto, Bruce Bortin and of course my business partner for 10 years Andreas Lehmann. I worked in Oakland until 1990, Christina and myself raised three amazing children, I grew as a person and artist, I showed in galleries, sold work, was included in the annual glass survey of the Corning Museum of Glass and began work as a designer, I worked with Crisa Co. in Mexico and later Steuben Glass, the crown jewel of Corning Inc., this collaboration resulted in a fabulous exhibit at Steuben Galleries on 5th Ave, in NYC. California will always have an important place in my soul.
1990 we moved back east, I worked with Steuben and built a new studio in a rural farmhouse in Jacksonville, Upstate NY. The local arts community, especially William Warmus and Peter Kahn, was very supportive, a stimulating, creative social group. During this time I taught at Pilchuck and participated at IGS, an international conferences celebrating glass which was held at Cristalex Co., in Novy Bor, in the Check Republic. I also worked with Peter Rath at Lobmayr’s. Peter was looking to reestablish the family tradition of working in the Czech Rep. especially with engravers.
In the mid 90’s I started a new studio on E. 76th St., in Manhattan
I collaborated with some of New York Cities top architects and designers. I taught at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop and found the next studio location which was quite extraordinary, a space overlooking the New York Harbor, located in an old warehouse, my view out the window was of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty! My engraving lathes had that view!
Architectural projects got bigger and more complex. Life was good, work was interesting and challenging.
Then came rheumatoid arthritis and severe immobility for a number of years. It has taken me quite some time to get back and feel confident and strong enough to produce work again.
I will always be thankful to my family and friends who helped me find a route back and to be able to create new work that I am proud of.
At present I live and work in Queens, NYC. Perhaps the most diverse of the borrows of NY City. I have the good fortune to know Mary Kuzma who seems to appreciate me coming to visit her in her studio at times. She is the light of my life and a constant source of inspiration. Who knows what the future will bring but I know that I will do some beautiful work in the hopes of making a meaningful contribution to society.
WORK HARD - BE KIND
Tomas Tisch
I was born into a “glass-family”, pre destined to work with this fascinating material. I love history but I have also always tried to push the envelope.
I am creative, I love photography, I love to draw and I love to travel. New tastes, new smells, a different light. All are important to me.
I ran away from the boarding school at Kramsach at age of 16, I was bored, I needed to go south, to Italy, to Florence to see Michelangelo’s “David”. I never did see the original masterwork in the Accademia Gallery but the trip was a transformative experience and I never looked back. I later hitchhiked all over Europe and I traveled overland to India.
This was a time before Afghanistan was irrevocably changed by the invasion of Russian troops. I saw the Taj Mahal, I hiked in the Karakoram. All my experiences combined into making me the artist I am today. But life started in a small town in Austria, in a loving, supportive family.
My mother was the primary force which first encouraged my creativity and my “Wanderlust”.I was fortunate to have met a great number of extraordinary teachers and mentors in my life. My primary school teacher, Ms. Pretul a patient and kind soul which looked past my pranks and encouraged my curiosity. My teachers, Joerg Srnka von Hohenlindegg, my teacher in art and design at Glasfachschule Kramsach, and my first spiritual guide, who introduced me to the soulful essence of artistic expression and his daughter Barbara, my teacher in art history, a child of the 60’s and a great friend and all around inspiring person.
In 1975, curious about studying photography, I came to the USA. This was a liberating and transformative move for me. Here I met Nathan Lyons, outstanding teacher and human being, the founder and director of the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY., then a new and unusual school for photography, video and printmaking and all aspects of visual communication.
Later, in Oakland, CA., I met Marvin Lipofsky, teacher and head of the glass program at California College of Arts and Crafts, he recognized my skills with glass and hired me to create the first “Cold-Working” program at CCAC. This work opened me to the possibility of using glass as a medium of personal expression.
My first exhibited artworks were in Video and Photography.
I received an award for my video work, “Transformative-Transfigurative-Transformations”, at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY in 1976.
I returned to Austria that year to finish my studies at the Akademie für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
I exhibited photographic work from my time in Rochester in Vienna at the gallery “Alte Schmiede”, in 1976.
1978 I returned to the USA. I was by then married to my first loving, creative wife Christina La Bue . Christina and myself decided to escape NY state winters and moved to Oakland, California.
I built my first studio in Oakland on W. 12th St., in a building owned by the Prieto family. A home to clan of artist/craftspeople, a most intriguing posse of characters especially, Esteban Prieto, Bruce Bortin and of course my business partner for 10 years Andreas Lehmann. I worked in Oakland until 1990, Christina and myself raised three amazing children, I grew as a person and artist, I showed in galleries, sold work, was included in the annual glass survey of the Corning Museum of Glass and began work as a designer, I worked with Crisa Co. in Mexico and later Steuben Glass, the crown jewel of Corning Inc., this collaboration resulted in a fabulous exhibit at Steuben Galleries on 5th Ave, in NYC. California will always have an important place in my soul.
1990 we moved back east, I worked with Steuben and built a new studio in a rural farmhouse in Jacksonville, Upstate NY. The local arts community, especially William Warmus and Peter Kahn, was very supportive, a stimulating, creative social group. During this time I taught at Pilchuck and participated at IGS, an international conferences celebrating glass which was held at Cristalex Co., in Novy Bor, in the Check Republic. I also worked with Peter Rath at Lobmayr’s. Peter was looking to reestablish the family tradition of working in the Czech Rep. especially with engravers.
In the mid 90’s I started a new studio on E. 76th St., in Manhattan
I collaborated with some of New York Cities top architects and designers. I taught at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop and found the next studio location which was quite extraordinary, a space overlooking the New York Harbor, located in an old warehouse, my view out the window was of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty! My engraving lathes had that view!
Architectural projects got bigger and more complex. Life was good, work was interesting and challenging.
Then came rheumatoid arthritis and severe immobility for a number of years. It has taken me quite some time to get back and feel confident and strong enough to produce work again.
I will always be thankful to my family and friends who helped me find a route back and to be able to create new work that I am proud of.
At present I live and work in Queens, NYC. Perhaps the most diverse of the borrows of NY City. I have the good fortune to know Mary Kuzma who seems to appreciate me coming to visit her in her studio at times. She is the light of my life and a constant source of inspiration. Who knows what the future will bring but I know that I will do some beautiful work in the hopes of making a meaningful contribution to society.
WORK HARD - BE KIND
