This abstract painting appears to depict a city street scene obscured by the method of paint application. Colors used include yellow, red, blue, black, and shades of neutral tones., T. Prochaska; Starts and Stops; 24 x 32 inches; oil; 1993, Artist Thomas Prochaska grew up drawing and sketching in Illinois, and then earned a degree in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin. A full scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn found him studying printmaking and painting. After a couple of years of teaching at Pratt Graphics Center and at the University of Georgia, he followed his love for printmaking — and his Swiss girlfriend — to Europe. “That’s where I learned the most about printmaking, doing it every day and doing it in a real practical manner… in Switzerland, in a tiny town, St.Prix.” When visa problems sent him back to the U.S., he taught at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, visiting family in Oregon during the summers. “And so I fell in love with Portland,” he sighs with a smile. “I went from being a Department Chairman to being in the Saturday Market.” His woodcuts of trout and salmon — “I also came here for the fishing,” he adds — were eventually licensed for use on T-shirts. Popular ones. “That made me feel real happy because it was people’s art, art away from institutions,” Tom says. “In some ways, that was the most satisfying work I’ve ever done, because people wore them.” (excerpt from biography at http://www.pnca.edu/exposure/stories/28/tom-prochaska), http://www.froelickgallery.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=223, The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is Lane Arts. You may view their website at http://www.lanearts.org/
