About tom novak

Born in Chicago in 1947; graduated H.S. in 1966; took that all expense paid tour of Beautiful, Sunny Vietnam in 1968, got wounded, came home in ‘68; got married; attended the Art Institute of Chicago, ’69-’73, graduates with a BFA in 1973; moved out west to be a cowboy for 1 year in ’73; Kip was born in ’75; came to northeast Oregon in ’75; Moved up in to mountains in ’78 for 8-9 years; Bram was born in ’79; opened Novak’s Studio in ‘79 and have made my living doing art ever since.  Until the autumn of 2018 my friend and fellow artist, Brian Vegter and I had an art gallery in downtown Baker City, the Short Term Gallery, for almost 10 years where we both had spaces in which we could paint everyday.  Now I’m back in my home studio where I’m working on a couple of new paintings.

I have always considered myself a painter/illustrator, but recently have tried my hand at creating sculptures, three of which will be made into bronze pieces as funds become available.                

Neuropathy of the extremities, a result from the chemo I received as a result of a little bout with cancer that I got from exposure to Agent Orange which I experienced as a result of my involvement in that Vietnam thing (still biting me on the ass 45 years later) left me with some challenges including the ability to draw.  My limbs aren’t totally numb but asleep enough to end my illustration career.  However with some tape and a tigh fitting handball glove I was able to fix paint brushes into my hand once again and with a little effort I could still paint.  Yeee-ha!

Before the cancer I was working on a project for our local Heritage Museum creating 18, 5’ x 7’ outdoor murals that were to fit into the bricked in upper story window spaces of the museum.  When I got sick I had only completed 4 of the murals.  The granting facility, Meyer Memorial Trust, was so very kind to me.  When I got out of the hospital, nearly a year later, they said they wanted me to be the artist to finish the mural project, IF I wanted to.  Wow, I was so grateful.  And they kept their promise even though it took me two more years to complete the job. 

For me this was a blessing in many ways the most obvious of these was the fact that I had a job to get back to giving me the opportunity to work at opening and reopening new and old pathways of mind/hand coordination, muscle memory and endurance, all of which were necessary after several months in bed.