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Tom McMillin of Port Hueneme works in a wide range of media, from the most primitive materials like clay, metals and ice to slick, modern Plexiglas.
"The medium is contingent upon the concept of the art to be created," he said.
From beautifully crafted ceramic vessels you can hold in your hand to huge installations set up on the beach to demonstrate erosion caused by the tide, nature and the environment are common themes in McMillin's pieces.
"I just love the systems in nature and their intrinsic beauty and try to show that in my work," he said.
McMillin's installations invite viewer participation. In Climatic Extremes, a collaboration with George Geyer at SOMA Gallery in San Francisco, visitors could see how their body temperatures caused ice to melt, demonstrating global warming.
McMillin is participating in the Putting On Airs artists-in-residence exhibit from Saturday to July 22 at Studio Channel Islands Art Center at California State University, Channel Islands, in Camarillo. One of the original artists-in-residence, he and David Elder have an exhibit titled Old Guys, New Work. A reception is set from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Most of the pieces McMillin will show are ones he made during April, when he was the first artist-in-residence at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, he said.
"It was really a challenge for me," he said. "I had never done luster glazes (which Wood was noted for). I got old notes out from grad school and used clay from the Santa Clarita River," he said. "I was like a kid in a candy store. (Wood) had a vast selection, every chemical available, and she kept meticulous notes."
Art is only one part of McMillin's life; another part is the ocean. He grew up on a farm in the San Fernando Valley in the '40s and '50s.
"Farm life is hard, and Dad would take me out on the water when he could," he said.
His father introduced McMillin to the captain of a fishing boat, and eventually McMillin spent his summers on the boat. He passed a three-day test to become the youngest Coast Guard-licensed captain on the West Coast at age 18.
Already winning awards for his art, McMillin would have been content to just work on the boat, doing art in his free time, but the boat captain persuaded him to go to college, telling him he needed an education if he wanted to work on the boat.
"So I ran boats in the summer and went to college in the winter," he said. He earned an associate degree and gold key award for art at Los Angeles City College, a bachelor's degree in design and teaching credentials from San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge) and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California.
He made ceramics full time as a career and did commissions for businesses.
"I was making good money, but I hadn't been out on the boat at all," he said.
He started teaching part time at University of Southern California in 1964 and accepted a job as an art professor at California State University, Northridge in 1965, teaching ceramics and design until he retired in 2000.
"I never regretted it," McMillin said. "I was able to buy a boat, and the teaching also provided me with an opportunity to take a year off to go to Mexico."
He continues to run charter trips on his 40-foot trawler, and the ocean provides inspiration for some of his pieces.
A radar image from the boat of land masses of the Channel Islands inspired one installation. McMillin drilled the patterns in panels of clear Plexiglas and lit it from beneath with an LED in the base. He enjoys hearing people's comments as they try to figure out how it's lit, he said.
"I find each material I work with very fascinating," McMillin said. "They all have their own intrinsic qualities unique to them. I like the diversity. I am more comfortable with clay, as to what I can do with it, and I love the feel of it."
"You can do anything with clay," he continued.
"You can add to it and take away from it, sculpture positive and negative. Powdered, liquid, plastic, fired, it's common and it's cheap."
You can trace the history of mankind from shards of ancient ceramic pottery to space industry re-entry tiles and silica tile insulators in computers, he said.
"Throughout history, clay has been a major component," McMillin said.
For more information on the exhibit, visit the Web site: c.
Area artists interested in being profiled in this section may contact Nicole D'Amore at 405-0364 or ArtProfiles@adelphia.net.
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