Shopping for Utopia

Shopping for Utopia is an animated tour of kid-designed Utopian Societies. I made this is collaboration with my son's class. We used paper cut outs, inspired by Eric Carle's illustration technique in books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The students were in 1st through 4th grades. There are some interesting, somewhat ominous themes that emerge -- different than what I would have imagined for my ideal society about when I was a kid.

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Since this was my first animated film that I sent out into the world, back in 1989, I decided it would be the first I would post on the web. I'm very excited to put up more! Stay tuned!

Florida Car & Driver

A old geezer and his beat up vehicle. Mixed media and white stoneware, low fired and painted. There have been a few changes since this picture was taken ( windshield, antenna, etc.). Awarded first place for sculpture at the Crealdé Student show.

Florida Car work in progress

After three hurricanes hit Orlando in the fall of 2004, I was feeling less romantic than I had been about my new home town's flora and fauna. One day I saw a grizzled old man driveing by, cigarette dangling out of the window, and I said -- I'm going to sculpt that guy! I worked on it at Crealdé for several months.

French Butter Dishes

Three french butter dishes. Cone 10 Stoneware. The butter is placed in a cup built into the lid. The base is filled with water which keeps the air and bacteria from getting to the butter.

Balloon vase

Stoneware vase, thrown and altered to look like a deflated balloon.

Fisherman and the Sea Teapot

This teapot was inspired by the folktale "The Fisherman and the Sea." The wave forms the handle, the fisherman's hat is the lid, and the fish's mouth is the spout. Cone 10 stoneware with glaze and underglazes.

Peaceful Head

This large head is made of clay, It has a peaceful, Zen expression. I created a latex mold from the piece and have made casts in cement and Hypertufa, and recently, have been making mask-like partial casts with paper clay.

Tubing at Rocks Springs

This is a 12 X 18 bas-relief wall piece made of clay, low-fired, painted with acrylics with multi-media details.

This is a scene from a great park here in Central Florida where you can float down the springs under a canopy of oaks and spanish moss.

Beach Combing Totem

I made this totem for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It features real and imaginary creatures that might have washed up on shore.
Cone 10 stoneware with glazes.

Boxed In

BoxedIn
Originally uploaded by Summer Kitchen Studio.

Boxed In was created as a collaboration with my brother, Bill Tomlinson, for the Arts Front Project in Center City Philadelphia in 1996. This huge white figure crouched in a storefront window held a TV in one hand and a tiny surveillance camera in the other, so that when you looked at him, he was looking at your image on the TV monitor. Both sculpture and viewer are "Boxed In." A photo of this piece appeared in Sculpture Magazine, and in several articles in Philadelphia newspapers.