Tom Marino
Birth Date: 1948

Artist Gallery
Tom Marino was raised in Chicago and has lived in Toledo since 1970. He has a degree in chemistry from Michigan Technical University. Art has always been part of his life, but with his work environment of science – his love of clay takes on another meaning. He is comfortable dealing in particle physics and color theory. Like many artists he has a day job in his technical field, but he also has his passion of art. “But with passion you make the time. Things like cleaning the house may be passed over, but who cares? I want to create and discover, and bring people joy and insight”. Marino explains the Crucible Series: “The Crucible Series further explores my interest in the idea of transformation. These sculptural bowl-within-a-bowl forms create a place and time where transformation can occur by various means. It can be ignited by a desire to create, a paradigm shift, or any type of change (pleasant or otherwise) that demands a new perspective. An athanor is the furnace used by alchemists to perform their chemical reactions and studies. The quest of transmuting lead into gold had both literal and philosophical meaning for alchemists. The quest is seen by some as a metaphor for transmuting base or common knowledge into higher or universal knowledge. Gold is the symbol of that achievement. The bronze/gold glaze used on the Athanor Crucible series refers to the successful transformation process resulting from our quest. The black crystal glaze used on the Light Source Crucible series refers to the vastness of space where light is created through the process of forming suns."