pieces, though he was still working out of traditional blacksmithing," Thomson said.
"I follow whatever interests me," he added, "Since I'm mostly self-taught, I don't have many preconceptions of what good metalwork is. I'm excited by metaphors - they pop up and out in my work.
"In 1990, he bought a 5,000-square-foot blacksmith shop in Ribera.
Several years ago while Thomson worked in his studio listening to National Public Radio, his multiyear struggle to create a chandelier design ended.
"The Berliners were tearing down the wall. I was filled with emotion," he said. "Not political emotion, but awed by the power of the human spirit triumphing through oppression. I wasn't conscious of it at the time, but that experience led to the torch-motif in the chandelier design. It represents freedom and liberty. But I didn't think that out and then make it. It happens, and then I see it later."

In the '60's, master blacksmith Frances Whitaker inspired Thomson to learn the craft. Whitaker was responsible for anchoring a renaissance in ornamental blacksmithing by touring the country and teaching the art to generations who know little about it.
Thomson was one of Whitaker's early pupils.
"At the time, I loved Whitaker's self-reliance. By using his own skills, he made beautiful and expressive

Six steel "torches" encircle a simple base suggesting a six-pointed star. Devoid of ornamentation, the chandelier epitomizes rustic simplicity. Thomson said design inspiration also comes from working with clay.
"In the 60's, I studied with a Bauhaus-trained master potter, Marguerite Wildenhain. After that, I lived and worked for 10 years at a pottery co-op, which I helped
to set up. It was exhilarating."
But Thomson's exhilaration came after years of disillusionment and feelings of alienation from the
Vietnam War. A conscientious objector to the war, Thomson served as a house parent for emotionally disturbed children at the Ming Quong Children's Center in Los Gatos, Calif.
"I'm a pacifist," he said. "I felt extremely alienated from the direction of society at the time. I
turned to art to try to resolve both the sadness and anger I felt and find a positive outlet for my vision."
He said being a house parent for traumatized children was a humbling experience. Thomson became introspective.
"I love children very much, but I didn't have the skills to help them,"

he said. "I guess no one did. Most of those children were going to be
institutionalized for the rest of their lives. They had fallen through the cracks."
He identified with the children's alienation and turned his attention toward serious art. He needed to focus on the more positive aspects of his life. "This painful experience led me to explore the wonder and beauty of the human experience," he said.
For several weeks out of the year, Thomson deliberately takes leave of civilized society and heads for remote canyons and deserts. He packs his camping gear, kayak and flute and disappears for awhile.
"I go in search of vision," he said. "I improvise flute tunes to interact with these magical places, and I find that ideas first explored musically often find their way into my steel work."
There is a lyricism of form in Thomson's metalwork. In his hand-forged Wave Bed, Thomson balances bold posts with fluid, graceful arches. The bedposts, shaped like ebullient sprouts or incomplete heart shapes, combine harmoniously with the slow, wide curves of the matching head and footboards.
The craftsmanship of this piece caught national attention last October when Thomson was invited to the premiere broadcast of Modern

Masters of the Home and Garden Show. Thomson was featured forging the famous Wave Bed, which is distributed nationwide.
In the tradition of the European apprentice system, Thomson has several apprentices helping him throughout the week, keeping demand and flow in check, as well as keeping the art of blacksmithing alive.
In 1999, Thomson was commissioned for the door hardware on the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque and in 1998, he won the NICHE award for his dinner-party table. NICHE awards hail outstanding creative achievements of U.S. and Canadian craft artists. Each year, the NICHE committee recognizes individual artists in a number of media. In 1997, Thomson won Best in Show at the Santa Fe Furniture Exposition.
On the corporate-project scene, Thomson was commissioned to custom design and forge three lamps for all of the bedroom suites at the Inn at Loretto in 1996.
But it's not the recognition or the money that keeps Thomson's devotion to blacksmithing alive. It's "the primal immediacy of working with the fire and the hot metal," he said. "It's the magic of the moment, when something happens that's not expected."
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