Covered from head to toe in a deep red terra cotta clay at age eleven, Tom Krempa began his love of ceramics. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, his first introduction to clay was at the local community center on the potter’s wheel . He continued his education in art through high school and college as well as private and advanced programs mostly in clay art. Krempa has won numerous awards at juried art shows in California and Washington State. His work has been shown in many galleries as well as purchased by the city of Everett, Washington for their permanent public art collection. He recently moved from Santa Cruz on the coast of California and now resides in Asheville, North Carolina where he continues sculpting in clay and painting with acrylics on canvas at his studio in the River Arts District.

Krempa’s figurative sculpture work is first conceptualized and sketched on paper to get a basic idea and form. He then uses a mid to high fire clay to produce parts for the sculpture. These parts are made by using many techniques which may include the potter’s wheel, rolling out slabs, extruding the clay, building  with coils, and other methods. He then assembles the pieces building the figure while sculpting and adding design and texture. After a low temperature firing in the kiln, he then applies glazes he has personally developed onto the sculpture. The piece then goes back into the kiln for the high temperature glaze firing. Many of Krempa’s pieces are then completed with the addition of bronze, steel or other metals.