Tom received MFA from the University of Iowa in Printmaking in 1998, Where he studied under Keith Achepohl, Bob Glasgow and Virginia Myers. After an offer from artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Reed moved to Chicago to to work as a printer For Fitzpatrick’s Big Cat Press. After meeting Steve Campbell, and collaborating with him on several projects, Reed was asked to come and work for Jack Lemon’s Landfall Press. He worked there for several years as the intaglio printer, collaborating with and printing works by: Peregrine Hoenig, Ed Paschke, David Levinthal, John Buck, and Sol Lewitt to name a few.

He then moved to St. Louis, his wife Amy’s home town, where he currently is the Master Printer at Island Press, Washington University in St. Louis’ Collaborative Print Workshop housed in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art. Where he and colleague Lisa Bulawsky have worked hard to build and maintain the strong reputation of the press and a top flight print publisher.

Tom has maintained an active studio practice with exhibitions at Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis MO, and group shows at both the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis and the Elmhurst Art Museum. In his spare time he is an avid fly fisher, fly tyer, and rod builder.

Artist Statement

The river is continually referred to in my work. Once a symbol of time and change in my paintings, it now has become a collaborative partner. I spend days and hours on the river fly fishing. Mementos of this time on the river—beaver-chewed sticks, logs, arrowheads, and junk—slowly began making their way into my studio and eventually into my work. Over time they formed a bridge between the river and my creative output. In my exhibition this is the before, I combined painted landscapes with small, wooden sculptures in the form of trail markers dotting a hiking trail. The largest, an arrow, reads simply “Before.” The word is both a warning and an invitation to view any ordinary, present-day moment through the eyes of a time traveler from the future. It asks, What would you change if you could go back in time? What if you are there right now?