TOM MAZZULLO

BIO AND ARTISTS STATEMENT


Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1968, Tom Mazzullo earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1990, and an MFA from Syracuse University in 1993. Specializing in the medium of silverpoint drawing, he has exhibited in competitions, in curated museum shows, and in professional and experimental galleries all over the United States. Recent exhibitions include metalpoint showcases at the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi, at Didier-Aaron in New York and at the National Arts Club in New York, where his entry was featured in the Drawing magazine review of the exhibition. His artworks are in many public and private collections, including the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, and the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. He is the co-author with Susan Schwalb of Silverpoint and Metalpoint Drawing: A Complete Guide to the Medium, published in 2019 by Routledge/Focal Press. He has been a visiting artist and lecturer all over the country, and served on the faculty at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, at The University of Denver, and has taught drawing at the Art Students League of Denver in Colorado.


"All of my work is done from observation, and each drawing is a record of the struggle to understand something about the specific object sitting in front of me. I pick subjects based on appearance and the obscure references they may kindle in my visual and literary memory. Silverpoint is the main tool I use while drawing because it demands patience to produce anything good, and it offers a connection with those artists who first turned to the natural world to inform their work. I take inspiration from the more peculiar graphic work of the European Renaissance, such as the fantasies of Bracelli, Jamnitzer, and Leonardo."


MORE ABOUT SILVERPOINT


Silverpoint, or more generally metalpoint, is a medieval drawing medium rarely practiced by artists today. Metalpoint drawing can be done with any soft metal – silver, gold, and copper are common, and exotic metals like platinum and bismuth can also be used. Metals are too hard to mark on plain paper, so a prepared surface, such as paper or board coated with a ground made of paint, must be used. The choice of grounds is myriad, and many people use gesso, casein, homemade grounds, and all kinds of commercial products like Golden Silverpoint Drawing Ground and common interior latex paint. The technique allows the artist to design with very fine lines of pale-gray color, but metals tarnish; while initially a silverpoint drawing resembles a graphite drawing, a drawing in silver left open to the air will begin to tarnish and the dull gray lines will take on a warm, sepia hue.


My preferred materials and techniques have not changed much since I learned silverpoint from my drawing professor, Chuck Schmidt, at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia back in the 1980's. I use hot press 140lb. watercolor paper, and a simple stylus made from sterling silver wire held in a mechanical lead holder. For a ground, I use white Plaka thinned with water, and I tint the liquid ground with watercolor. Much of what I've learned over the past 30 years is included in our book, Silverpoint and Metalpoint Drawing: A Complete Guide to the Medium, published by Routledge/Focal Press.

CONTACT


2422 W 82nd Place 

Unit 2C

Westminster, CO 80031

Phone: (303) 909-7937

tom@tommazzullo.com


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© 2024 Tom Mazzullo