Metaphorical Portrait of Gerry Garvey, 2024
Blades of Change
Nuclear industrial fan blade (fiberglass, etched)
Currently on public display until September 11, 2025
at Woolworth’s Window Art Installations, Spaceworks Tacoma
11th & Commerce St., Tacoma, Washington (visible from street)
Available for purchase, please inquire.
Artist Statement
The idea of this piece germinated from my discussions with Gerry Garvey, a retired nuclear physicist. Blades of Change pairs elders with artists to capture their life stories as monumental works of art.
During our discussions, I became aware of the similarities in our paths: I spent years in the military in New Mexico, testing weapons at the Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility.
Additionally, my brother was trained by the Navy in New Mexico to assemble nuclear weapons and ultimately filed for conscientious objector status while on the USS Enterprise off the coast of Vietnam.
Gerry Garvey worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was also a professor at Princeton University. This sculpture includes Gerry’s favorite mathematical equations, and petroglyphs made from his handprints and inspired by other petroglyphs found in New Mexico.
Tom Gormally (Seattle) has been exhibiting his sculpture for over forty years, including at The Nelson-Atkins Museum (Kansas City, MO), Katonah Museum (Katonah, NY), Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, IA) Ulrich Museum (Wichita, KS), Blanden Memorial Art Museum (Fort Dodge, IA), Heidi Cho Gallery (NY, NY), Marcia McCoy Gallery (Santa Fe, NM) and the Morgan Gallery (Kansas City, MO.)
Gormally has created site-specific installations for sculpture invitationals in the United States and Belfast, Ireland. In the Seattle area he has exhibited at Cornish College of the Arts, Bellevue College Gallery, Bellwether Sculpture Exhibition, Solomon Fine Art, Lead Gallery, Method Gallery, and most recently at Spaceworks Gallery in Tacoma, Washington.
Tom Gormally received his BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and also attended California College of Arts and Crafts. He then earned his MFA from Wichita State University. He is an NEA grant recipient for sculpture, as well as a 2015 Artist Trust Fellowship recipient. His work is in private and public collections including SAFECO, Chemical Bank of New York, and the Blanden Art Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Tom is a partially disabled Vietnam-era veteran and the father of three men he is very proud of. He lives in Seattle with his wife, artist Malayka Gormally.
Spaceworks Tacoma Woolworth’s Window Art Installations (11th & Commerce St., Tacoma, WA)
Visible 24/7 from the street until September 11, 2025
Photos by Mark Woods