“Virginia Lloyd-Tait’s exhibition at Clara Street Gallery is a retrospective journey in life and sculpture. It's an odyssey of Blood, Sweat, and Tears. But it is also one of Music. Blood first: until 3 years ago Virginia worked full-time in plasma research and supply, while also lending her talent as a board member of Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School until 2020…”

“I’ve always done creative things but I’d never tried sculpting before and I didn’t have any experience with the studio environment so coming into Tom Bass was eye opening.”

“I’m an artist at Studio A, a place for professional artists with intellectual disabilities. At Studio A I do drawing, painting, and papier-mâché sculptures of animals. I also like paintings and drawings of botanical subjects.”

“I grew up with sculpture in my life as my oldest friend’s father, Alan Ingham, was a sculptor. (Alan was Henry Moore’s assistant for four years in the early 1950s and when he came back from the UK he worked with Tom Bass for a while.) Alan’s studio and bronze foundry were down the back of the bush block in Newport where my friend Jane and I grew up. We were always visiting Alan in the studio…”

“The experience was deeply immersive and intense with the sounds of marble being mined and occasionally pushed down the hillside serving as a backdrop while they were carving…”

“Sculpting has been on my radar since I created my major work for year twelve in high school, ‘Lady in the hammock’. There was a gap from then until Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School became an essential part of my week about 7 years ago…”

“Sculpting is an amazing outlet to release stress, and once that goes, the creativity seems to come. I love the feeling of immersion and freedom that you get when you’re carving a piece of stone. It’s physically demanding, tactile and earthy... and in the end you get a three dimensional object that will hopefully bring joy to someone…”

Last month, we were very glad to welcome back Georgina Mills, a figurative realist sculptor and TBSSS guest teacher from Tarntanya/Adelaide, to run two ¾ Life-Size Torso Workshops. We spoke with two of the students who participated about their experience.

“I recently had the absolute pleasure of taking part in Michael Vaynman’s 2 Day Wax Workshop, and it was honestly just what I needed…”

“As Anni Albers said: “art is something that makes you breathe with a different kind of happiness.” I’ve never done any kind of studio art before, so sculpting is a new kind of happiness for me. I love the challenge of drawing from the right side of my brain for a change… though I still cannot follow map directions…”

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, TBSSS alumni Donna Littlejohn.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, TBSSS alumni William Feez

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor & TBSSS alumni Brendan Toole.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor, TBSSS alumni & teacher Christine Crimmins.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor & TBSSS alumni Christophe Cornard.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor & TBSSS alumni Tony Wong Hee.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor, TBSSS alumni & teacher Wendy Black.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor, TBSSS alumni & guest teacher Ingrid Morley.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, sculptor & TBSSS alumni BJ Kim.

Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School is celebrating 50 years! We will be sharing interviews with members of our community to mark this milestone. Today, TBSSS alumni Margo Hoekstra.