User:D. Shelor/sandbox

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other possible meanings see Thomas Wilson (disambiguation)
Thomas Wilson
Chicago, Illinois, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationStudent of world-renowned Bulgarian portrait painter Kyril Vassilev (b.1906-1987), and polymath Dutch sculptor and artist Alexander Weygers (b.1901-1989)
Occupation(s)Blacksmith, Musician, Author
Known forMetal and ironwork, illustration, music, sculpture, scholarship
Notable workThe Door of Dubai
Children4
Parent(s)Frank and Rose Wilson
Awards2012 RITAN STONE BOAT DUNKING AWARD
Websitethomaswilsondesign.com ™craftsmanship in pursuit of antiquity

Thomas Wilson (born 1954) is a master

sculptor, author, and an accomplished Blues musician.(1) Initially starting out forging authentic archaic hand tools, Wilson soon became closely connected to the daughter and legacy of Austrian master blacksmith Cyril Colnik(2) and developed his craftsmanship through firsthand detailed study of Colnik's Belle Époque masterworks and pieces. A highly distinguished international talent, Wilson has done restoration work globally, including for the White House, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Petit Palais,(1) and complete restoration illustrations for Neues Schloss (Baden-Baden), to name a few.(3)(4) In 1974, he was part of the group which founded the Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America
. Wilson lives and works in
Florence, Italy where he is usually found sketching and studying historic masterworks (and playing Blues
), in his ongoing pursuit of the essence of craftsmanship of antiquity.(4)

Early life & Education

Growing up in the City of

engravings
. By age 18, Wilson was making diligent and nuanced pieces from his study of classical metalworking techniques such as repoussé and chasing. It was while studying under Alexander Weygers that Wilson also first met Gretchen Colnik, daughter of local Austrian émigré master blacksmith Cyril Colnik --of Chicago's Columbian Exposition (1893-1894) renown. It was this fortuitous connection which focused Wilson's native talent (and further studies with Weygers) into intersection with the legacy and artifacts of a genuine Old World master craftsman.(2) Wilson describes his ensuing long friendship with local media celebrity Gretchen Colnik (from age 68 until her death at 88) as pivotal, for it brought him into firsthand contact with the wealth of ornamental ironwork artifacts of her father; and informed him of the seminal history surrounding both the Gilded Age and the master ironwork lauded at the Chicago World's Fair and beyond. It is then accurate to say --through Gretchen Colnik, a profound path was introduced for Wilson to the earlier era of Cyril Colnik (b.1871-1958), and a door further opened to the rigorous Old World craftsmanship which had infused the education and life's work of the master Colnik himself.(4) (See: Colnik's XXX Guild Masterpiece)

Education

Career

Explain the subject's early life historically using a journalistic style.[1]

[[Image:Image(s) that captures subject's major contribution(s).ext|thumb|left|Photo caption]]

WHAT ARE GOOD SUB-CATEGORIES UNDER CAREER???

"Thomas Wilson has been internationally recognized for his original creative talent and has, in all likelihood drawn more images of ironwork than anyone in the history of metalsmithing. With fluency in multiple classic Renaissance metalworking techniques, Wilson has worked on high-profile ironwork restorations and creations for sites including the White House, the Globe Theatre, and the Petit Palais. His work can be found worldwide, from public and private venues of North America to castles and streets of Europe to palaces in Asia and the Middle East. He is the artistic director and founder of World Metal Art Affiliates (WMAA ™craftsmanship in pursuit of antiquity) an atelier, forge, and foundry focused on classical ironwork, original commissions, commercial metalwork, and light structural steel. At the age of sixteen, Wilson built his first forge in River Hills, Wisconsin from a colonial American drawing. He relocated his ironwork design business to Beijing in 2007." --Sally Adams. 2016. (Thomas Wilson's Ironwork Notebooks - Inspiration From A Master)

An admirer and long scholar of

Columbian Exposition), Wilson is the foremost authority on his life, body of work, and legacy. In personal demonstration of deep study and recognition of the mastery of Colnik, Wilson can recreate in total from memory, Colnik's masterpiece required for matriculation from apprentice to master and guild membership. Colnik's masterwork features ??38?? individual iron working techniques and is the centerpiece of the Villa Terrace Collection: https://www.villaterrace.org/colnik_collection/

Major Commissions

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Blues musician

Among his many talents, Tom Wilson is also a "multi-faceted musician who has had the distinct pleasure of accompanying nearly every Blues performer to pass through the Milwaukee/Chicago music scene in the last thirty years."(8)

Awards & Recognition

  • 2019: "Thomas Wilson is a remarkable artist author and scholar working in the metal arts today. He is a LIVING AMERICAN TREASURE [sic] and one of the very few artists who are masters of the ancient traditions of ironworking in the 20th and 21st century." --Micheal W. Monroe, Director (former),
    Washington DC
  • 2
  • 3

Influences: Colnik the Mozart of Metal, and the Chicago World's Fair 1893-1894

The progression of Tom Wilson's craftsmanship and refinement of technique is tied to the story and legacy of Cyril Colnik (b.1871-1958). Born in Styria, Austria Colnik is intimately connected to Chicago and the development of Milwaukee and its large Germanic population beginning in the period of the turn of the last century (1900). In the early 1890s,

Franz Joseph I's (1848–1916) new era of grandeur, typified by the Belle Époque style in iron work and craftsmanship. The young Cyril Colnik was a bridge to tradition, yet chose to remain in Chicago and eventually moved north to Milwaukee. To the wealthy beer barons, tanners, bankers and society of Chicago and Milwaukee making new industries and building a new cities, Colnik was a coveted artisan of the Old World
's refinement in their midst. From 1970-73, when Thomas Wilson was a student of Kyril Vassilev he met Gretchen Colnik, daughter of Cyril Colnik. From that point forward Wilson became an inheritor of a unique legacy and the confidant of Colnik --in Wilson, Gretchen Colnik could pass on the firsthand knowledge of her father's world and past. CITATIONCite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5325/jaustamerhist.1.2.0117.pdf

As summarized by specialist John-Duane Kingsley to the Decorative Arts Trust -- "

Columbian Exposition
in Chicago. Today, his masterpiece is as iconic a piece to forging as the Mona Lisa is to painting. He has been called a Mozart of Metal, a true virtuoso at an early age."

From Chicago, Colnik was drawn to Milwaukee by the strong German population and the rapidly industrializing city where a prosperous economy provided opportunities for commissions. Colnik’s German patrons shared an appreciation for the naturalism of his design sensibility and wished to consciously incorporate elements of European style into their homes and cityscape. As a result, Colnik created works that now reside in the Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion, the Herman Uihlein Mansion, the Paula and Erwin Uihlein Mansion, Mader’s German Restaurant, Von Trier German Tavern, and the Gallun and Kalvelage Mansions." CITATIONCite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). (https://decorativeartstrust.org/colnik-article/)

Published works by Thomas Wilson

PUBLISHED WORKS vs. REFERENCES vs. BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • "The Adventures of Anvil Boy", (first in a new series) copyright © 2021 Thomas Wilson (author and illustrator); with Sally Adam; ISBN 978-0-578-94680-1; independently published

References

PUBLISHED WORKS vs. REFERENCES vs. BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) Monroe, Michael W: Letter - Recommendation of Thomas Wilson. 03 December 2018. Director Emeritus, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA. Manuscript. Director Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution's Renwick [sic]

(2) Last will and testament of Gretchen Colnik. 12 Aug. 1983. Filed Court of Probate, County of Milwaukee. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

(3) Metalworks Catalogue - Meeting at the Neues Schloss Between Fawziah Al Hasawi and Mr. Wenthai Liu. 30 April 2012. Neues Schloss Management Services GmbH, Schlosster.22 76530 Baden-Baden, Germany. Catalogue.

(4) Wilson, Thomas K. Interviews with the artist (Chicago, IL & Milwaukee, WI). Conducted by David Shelor, 5, 8, and 9 Jan. 2020; 7-11 Mar. 2021.

(5) PLACEHOLDER

(6) PLACEHOLDER

(7) PLACEHOLDER

(8) "Blues Band from Milwaukee, WI." The Bash™, 2015, https://www.thebash.com/blues-band

Draft - A WORKING LIST OF REFERENCES - Pending correct formatting and inclusion in text body.

  • Wilson, Thomas K. Interviews with the artist (Chicago, IL & Milwaukee, WI). Conducted by David Shelor, 5, 8, and 9 Jan. 2020; 7-11 Mar. 2021.

Bibliography

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN WIKI's USE OF: PUBLISHED WORKS vs. REFERENCES vs. BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Adam, Sally (2021) The Hammer-informed Pen of Thomas Wilson - Evolution of an Ironwork Designer. The Anvil's Ring Vol. 49, No. 1, Winter 2021 (Albert Paley Issue. (pp 16-35); copyright © 2021 Artist's Blacksmith Association of North America, Inc.


  • Adam, Sally (2016) forward by H. Russell Zimmerman. Thomas Wilson's Ironwork Notebooks - Inspiration From A Master. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Further reading

External links

See also

  1. ^ Last, first (date). Name of page. Page xx. Publisher: xxxx
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