Tommy Simpson

For Tommy Simpson, fun is paramount, both for himself and his audience. Simpson blazed his own trail in the studio furni¬ture field. His highly person¬al¬ized style—a mixture of sculp¬ture, paint¬ing, and surface design—is firmly rooted in his extra¬or¬di¬nary skill as a furni¬ture maker. As a child, Simpson combined pieces of scrap wood with found objects to create whimsical sculptures. His great-aunt Florence taught him to paint and encouraged him to study painting at Northern Illinois University.

Simpson graduated from North Illinois University with a degree in education and went on to earn an MFA in painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He started with printmaking, jewelry, and ceramics at the interdisciplinary institution before switching to painting and sculpture. While studying at Cranbrook, Simpson turned to furniture as both subject matter and a three-dimensional canvas, but never studied the craft formally.

Through his partic¬i¬pa¬tion in hundreds of exhi¬bi¬tions, author¬ing books and arti¬cles, teach¬ing and lectur-ing across the world, and having his worked placed in promi¬nent collec¬tions, Simp¬son’s contri¬bu¬tions to studio furni¬ture is significant. The Furni¬ture Society awarded him with the Award of Distinction in 2006.