Tom Killion (born 1953) is an American artist, author, African historian and educator. He is internationally known for printmaking

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

and

letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker com ...

techniques. The subject matter of his artwork is often the landscapes of Northern California. His art studio is in

Inverness Ridge Inverness Ridge is a ridge located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in western Marin County, California. It reaches an elevation of . See also * Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innernes ...

, on the

Point Reyes Peninsula Point Reyes (, meaning "Point of the Kings") is a prominent cape and popular Northern California tourist destination on the Pacific coast. Located in Marin County, it is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied t ...

in Marin County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Three of his books were co-authored by the Pulitzer Prize-winning

Beat poet The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatione ...

Gary Snyder. Killion has taught African history classes at Bowdoin College,

University of Asmara The University of Asmara (UoA) was a public university in Asmara, Eritrea. The nation's first university, it was founded in 1958 by the "Piae Madres Nigritiae" ( Comboni Sisters). The school was meant to provide for the local population, though ...

and

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

Biography

Killion was born in 1953 in

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

, California, and has two siblings, a brother Paul and a sister, journalist Ann Killion. He attended

Tamalpais High School Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost above Mill Valley. Tamalpais High Scho ...

. Killion graduated from

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

in 1975 from

Cowell College The first of the ten residential colleges of the University of California, Santa Cruz, established in 1965, Cowell College (Samuel Henry Cowell College) sits on the edge of a redwood forest with a remarkable view of Monterey Bay. The college is n ...

in History. He has a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree from 1980 and a

Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

degree from 1985, from Stanford University in

African History The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and — around 300–250,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans ('' Homo sapiens''), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of d ...

, with his dissertation on the Ethiopian/Eritrean labor movement. From 1990 to 1995, Killion taught African History at Bowdoin College. Between 1993 and 1994 he was a Fulbright Professor at

in Eritrea. And in 1995 to 2001 he was a guest lecturer at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the Humanities Department. While attending University of California, Santa Cruz, Killion learned printmaking and bookbinding from Jack Stauffacher in 1975. In the same year 1975, he created his first printed book of landscapes, ''28 Views of Mount Tamalpais''. By 1977 he founded his own Quail Press. His printmaking is inspired by

Japanese woodblock printing Woodblock printing in Japan (, ''mokuhanga'') is a technique best known for its use in the ''ukiyo-e'' artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (160 ...

but it is different in technique, because he uses oil-based inks, linoleum block and a printing press. Killion was featured on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television series ''

Craft in America Craft in America, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Carol Sauvion in 2003, and based in Los Angeles, California. Its mission is to document and advance contemporary American craft and traditional craft practices through educ ...

'', episode "Process" airing October 7, 2009, also featuring 92nd Street Y,

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approx ...

North Bennet Street School North Bennet Street School (NBSS) is a private vocational school in Boston, Massachusetts. NBSS offers nine full-time programs, including bookbinding, cabinet and furniture making, carpentry, jewelry making and repair, locksmithing and security te ...

, Julie Chen and others.

Awards

* 2017 – Marin Cultural Treasure Award, Cultural Commission of Marin County, California * 2016 – Commonwealth Club’s 85th Annual, California Book Awards for ''California’s Wild Edge'' * 2016 – 35th Annual Northern California Book Reviewers, Recognition Award for ''California’s Wild Edge''

Bibliography

* ''California's Wild Edge'' co-authored with Gary Snyder. Heyday Books, 2015. * ''Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints'' co-authored with Gary Snyder. Heyday Books, 2013. * ''The High Sierra of California'' co-authored with Gary Snyder. Heyday Books, 2005. * ''The Coast of California''. Quail Press, 1999. * ''Historical Dictionary of Eritrea''. co-authored with Dan Connell, Scarecrow Press, 1998. * ''The California Coast''. David R Godine Publisher, 1988. * ''Fortress Marin''.

Presidio Press Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...

, 1979.

References

External links

Artists official website
*Video
"Process" episode
from October 2009,

* Video:
Juxtapoz Presents: Tom Killion's Woodcut Printmaking
' from July 2015,

Juxtapoz magazine ''Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine'' (pronounced ''JUX-tah-pose'') is a magazine created in 1994 by a group of artists and art collectors including Robert Williams, Fausto Vitello, C.R. Stecyk III (a.k.a. Craig Stecyk), Greg Escalante, and Eric ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Killion, Tom 1953 births Tamalpais High School alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Stanford University alumni American printmakers People from Mill Valley, California Ethiopian historians Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Living people