Cappy Thompson

For me, as a narrative painter, the issue has always been content. The issue wasn’t glass, the material that I chose some 37 years ago. Nor was it the painting technique—grisaille or gray-tonal painting—that I taught myself to use. My work—which spans several decades and a variety of scales from the intimate to the monumental—has always been driven by content.

Early in my career I was drawn to the images, symbols and painting of the medieval period—but not just the Christian tradition of Western Europe. I loved the content of Hindu, Pagan, Judaic, Buddhist and Islamic painting as well. These were images created before the invention of “art” as we know it—before painters controlled the content of their work. These were works decreed by religious and political authorities to depict the magnificence and beauty of the natural and divine order. What I loved was the naïve naturalism and devout simplicity of that period—like the folk art of any period. I started by designing and painting glass panels based on the narrative content of mythology, fables and folktales, drawn in oblique projection, with transparent jewel-like colors. Later I painted similar narratives on glass vessels.

About twenty years ago I found myself moving away from mythological narrative and toward compositions on vessels that drew upon images and themes from my personal life. Elements would drift up and assemble into picture-poems that seemed to have a life of their own.

I began to understand these works as reflections of the spiritual and psychological issues in my life. I painted members of my family and myself in a kind of autobiographical fantasy, working with the mythopoetic materials of my life. I cast myself into scenes from various spiritual traditions.

This began an autobiographical exploration of world culture and spirituality that continues to the present.

I see now, after more than forty years of work, that I am like those medieval painters striving to express magnificence and beauty. But my expression focuses on the human experience of goodness, of hope and of love.

~ Cappy Thompson 2019

Selected Exhibitions

2019: Metaphor Into Form,” Tacoma Art Museum

2018: “Narratives in Glass,” Palm Springs Art Museum

2016: "Fired up: Women in Contemporary Glass," Mint Museum; “All Together Now,” Vashon Center for the Arts; "The Beauty of a Shared Passion," Tacoma Art Museum

2015: "Flourish: Selected Jewelry from the Daphne Farago Collection," Asheville Art Museum

2013: "Telling Tales: Narrative Works by Nate Steigenga, Cappy Thompson and Anna Torma”, Bellevue Arts Museum; “Northwest Artists Collect,” Museum of Glass

2012: “Playing with Fire,” Museum of Arts and Design; “Pilchuck: Ideas,” Museum of Northwest Art

2011: “Seattle Collects,” Seattle Art Museum

2010: “Eyes for Glass: The Price Collection,” Bellevue Arts Museum

2006: “Cappy Thompson: Stars Falling on Alabama,” Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

2005: “Cappy Thompson: Glass Vessels for a Dream Voyage,” Hudson River Museum

2004: “Transformed by Fire,” Seattle Art Museum

2002: “Contemporary Directions,” Carnegie Museum of Art

1998-00: “American Glass: Masters of the Art,” Smithsonian traveling exhibition

1997: “Glass Today by American Studio Artists,” Boston Museum of Fine Art

1996: “Breaking the Mold: New Directions in Glass,” Huntsville Museum of Art

1995: “Holding the Past,” Seattle Art Museum

1994: “World Glass Now ‘94,” Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

1992: “Australian International Crafts Exhibition,” Art Gallery of Western Australia

1989-92: “Craft Today U.S.A.,” American Craft Museum, International touring exhibition

1987: “Thirty Years of New Glass,” Corning Museum of Glass

Selected Public Art Commissions

2010: Tukes Valley School, Battle Ground, Washington. Design, fabrication and installation of 2’ x 100’ frieze of painted windows. Commissioned by Washington State Arts in partnership with Battle Ground School District.

2008: Covington Library, Covington, Washington. Design and fabrication of 6’ x 8’ reverse-painted glass mural. Commissioned by King County Library System.

2006: The Evergreen State College, Daniel J. Evans Library, Olympia, Washington. Design, fabrication and installation of 10’ x 66’ art glass window wall. Commissioned by Washington State Arts Commission. Fabricated at Derix Glasstudios, Germany.

2005: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama. Design, fabrication and installation of art-glass triptych with central 22’ x 10’ arched window and two 12’ x 11’ side window/door surrounds. Commissioned by Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Fabricated at Derix Glasstudios, Germany.

2003: Museum of Glass, Grand Lobby, Tacoma, Washington. Design, fabrication and installation of 12’ x 15’ reverse-painted glass mural. Commissioned by Museum of Glass.

2000-03: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, Washington. Design and fabrication of 33‘ x 90’ art glass curtain-wall. Commissioned by Port of Seattle. Fabricated at Derix Glasstudios, Germany.

Selected Collections

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama

Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York

Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan

Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama

Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama

Museum of Arts and Design New York, New York

Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington

Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington