B I O G R A P H Y

Tony Lazorko

Photo by Donna Clayton Lawder

 

 

About myself: I received four years of fine arts education, 1956-1960, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There I studied drawing, oil painting and printmaking under the tutelage of such prestigious artists as Morris Blackburn, Walter Stumpfig and Franklin Watkins. To help pay for my tuition I was a print monitor for three years at the behest of Mr. Blackburn. When I left the Academy, I actively pursued the exhibition route and was generally well-received, with my early work seen in exhibitions and purchased by various collectors.

Although I have made my living in commercial art all my life, the love of printmaking has always been a big part of my life. A few years ago I retired from my job as Art Director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and have begun again to make prints. My wife, Marguerite Biddle, and I purchased a small house and studio in Mesilla, New Mexico, where we are busy working. She and I were fellow students at the Academy.

My woodcuts are multi-color, involving many separate blocks. I always pull my own prints so the whole process is quite time-consuming. Therefore I do not like to send them out to galleries unless there is real interest.

When my wife and I lived in Powelton Village, we started the Powelton Village Arts Festival. It was quite a success, and in 1967 we were able to move it into the 33rd Street Armory. It was the first art show to be held there.

The focus of my work has always been to depict something about the American experience, no matter how ordinary, and to say it in an aesthetic manner with tactile surfaces, color and composition.

My recent show, Against the Grain, at the Las Cruces Museum of Art was featured in the April 2007 issue of Desert Exposure magazine.

Current Gallery Affiliations

Print Making Society Membership Affiliation

  • Society of American Graphic Artists
  • Boston Printmakers
  • The Los Angeles Printmakers Society
  • Maryland Printmakers
  • Washington Printmakers Society
  • American Color Print Society
  • California Society of Printmakers
  • Seattle Print Arts
  • Print Arts Northwest

Exhibition Activities (Chairman of):

  • Powelton Village Arts Festival 1965, ’66, ’67 The 1967 Festival was the first art exhibit at the 33rd Street Armory
  • Ethical Society of Philadelphia Human Condition Exhibition, 1966
  • University City Arts Festival, 1967

Graphic Arts Career Activities

  • Staff artist, assistant art director & art director at: The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 1956 -1982
  • Staff artist, assistant art director & art director at: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1982 - 2000 Art director, Blavat Advertising, 1968 - 1982