Preston Trombly has been an artist for most of his life. His first artistic successes were as a musical artist—composer, performer, and conductor. More recently he has been working in the visual arts.

“For me, the need to make art has been a driving force in my life. Whether it’s working with and organizing sounds over time, or more recently colors, materials and shapes in space; my work is about turning initially vague, fleeting and amorphous ideas into solid, concrete and comprehensible ‘objects’ (works of art).

My art reflects my responses to the visual stimulations of contemporary life, and to the actual materials with which I work.

For several years I worked as a composer and performer (Guggenheim Fellow, NEA and NYSCA commissions, MacDowell Colony Fellow residencies, performed and recorded with jazz great Jaki Byard). My experiences composing and creating musical structures inform my current work in the visual arts.

Found objects, pieces of metal, wood, fabric, and artist's pigments are the raw materials of my current work. Each piece begins when a particular juxtaposition of elements intrigues me enough to start working on a piece.

At the point when the addition of even one other element will 'destroy' the work, and the subtraction of even one single element will leave it incomplete, the piece is finished.

I have not yet spoken of the 'emotional content' of my work. It will be there—a priori—in every art work, with or without the artist's conscious effort to include or exclude it.”

For a brief biography on Mr. Trombly, click here.

© 2010 Preston Trombly