Thomas McDonald is co-owner of Bear Island Art Factory along with artist Janine Patten, his wife. Thomas creates with recycled metal objects or collages of found objects. He and Janine also do fine art paintings, drawings and relief sculptures (bearislandartfactory. com).
LSM: Are you from Duluth? If not, what drew you here?
TM: I am not from Duluth originally. I am from the Chicago area. I grew up in Pleasantview, an unincorporated community 25 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Nine years ago I was fortunate enough to have relocated to a home on Bear Island Lake near Babbitt, Minnesota. My wife and I moved to be closer to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Since 1999, the BWCA was where we took our annual vacation.
LSM: How did you become involved in creating your art and
what inspires you?
TM: Creating art and using tools to make stuff is something I have always done. As a child I built tree forts out of scrap lumber. After high school, I worked on an assembly line in Chicago, manufacturing U-Haul trailers. I was laid off shortly after the job started. I had the opportunity to attend the College of DuPage, a local community college. I enrolled in a few art classes because I thought I would enjoy them, and I thought that they would be easier than other college courses. A
drawing instructor at COD encouraged me to study art further. So I did. In 1985 I earned my bachelors of fine art degree in printmaking from Northern Illinois University. After graduating, I made and exhibited my art and tried to make ends meet working various jobs. I worked at an oil refinery and was a carpenter’s laborer. I always thought to myself, “Why am I working here when I have this other talent?” So I quit work to go back to school to pursue a masters degree, thinking I could teach art. In 1992 I received my masters of fine art from the University of Illinois at Chicago. After receiving My MFA, I made artwork, exhibited artwork and I taught art for 20 years before heading to Minnesota. I am inspired by many periods of art history and by my own personal journey. Where I have been , what I have seen, and the approaches to art over the centuries have always been connected to what I create. I am inspired by the Romantic Period, Pop Art, the Barbazon School and Early Christian Art. Hard to see sometimes in my work, but it is there.
LSM: Tell me a little about the process with the metal repurposing art.
TM: The use of found materials has been a part of my work for a long time; they
Thomas McDonald’s recylced metal art may feature old pots and pans or sheet metal, nailed, riveted or screwed together, painted and using words from old license plates.
are usually free! Before graduate school, I dabbled with found materials, but most of my artwork was painting and drawing. In graduate school, my professors encouraged me to incorporate the two major aspects of my life – the working person and all the tools that went with it and the formal painting drawing art side of me. It was a revelation: Why hadn’t I thought of that? Having grown up with tools and a Yankee-know-how, fix-it, make-it-yourself attitude, I took to found materials art making like a duck to water. I believe that “jack of all trades master of none” attitude comes from my dad and my grandpa. Something happen to me as a kid watching Grandpa fix the family car with a coat hanger.
LSM: What’s the most memorable reaction you’ve gotten about your work?
TM: The nostalgic aspect of the northwoods art I create has driven several people to tears. Certain imagery reminded some folks of beloved family vacations to the north country and the loved ones who accompanied them, loved ones who have since passed.
LSM: When you’re not creating, what do you most like to do?
TM: I enjoy canoe trips , camping, hiking and fishing with my wife Janine. I love going into the woods in search of junk piles – piles of dumped old rusty cans and other stuff like that, a.k.a. art supplies. I enjoy a good conversation.
LSM: If you could tell visitors just one thing about Duluth, what might it be?
TM: I would say, “Take a good look at the old stuff, the ships, the boats, the ore docks, the grain elevators, the trains. Duluth is a very romantic town. I also love the paintings of performers hung in the concourse at the DECC.
LSM: Where can people see or purchase your artwork?
TM: You can see or purchase my work at Joy and Company in Grand Marais, at Ubetcha Antiques in Tower, at Piragis Northwoods or The Cabin in Ely, during the Blueberry Arts and Harvest Moon festivals in Ely or on our website, bearislandartfactory. com. n