Male

My drawings and paintings reflect my major artistic interests, which are people and pets. They also evoke my travels. Even while painting in plein air, I've usually thought that not to include a human figure would be a missed opportunity.

I also like to tell stories, which Mike Torma artworks also do, usually with more than one layer of symbolism.

The son of an Air Force officer, I moved around quite a bit, beginning in rural Alabama. While still in high school (say sixty years ago), I won an emerging artists award in Savannah, Georgia, for the watercolor "Thunderbolt.".

My Bachelor of Arts degree was earned at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. While there, I had a piece exhibited at the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery. During the same period, for a yarn called "Down in Alabama," I won the Kansas City Star's Hemingway award for best short story of 1964. Throughout my undergraduate years, I did portraits and sold other artworks to earn money for medical school.

I studied art briefly at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaus-Arts in Paris, France.

I was graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1968. Internship and residency in general surgery in San Antonio followed, thence a research fellowship in gastrointestinal surgery in Salt Lake City.

Thereafter, a combined medical and military career in the US Air Force (1967-1992) ensued. I ultimately rose to the rank of Brigadier General, last serving as Command Surgeon for Strategic Air Command.

Through it all, I continued to paint and to exhibit. For example, there were showings at the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, Virginia, and at the Coleman Gallery, York, Alabama. I won the all-Air Force art competition in the late eighties. I used leave time for studies with Martha Mayer Ehrlebacher, Anthony Ryder, and other artistic mentors.

I became chairman of surgical services at Presbyterian in Dallas in 1992, and moved to Shreveport in 1996 at the behest of the Biomedical Research Foundation. When that grant work ended, the Tormas had already decided to call Shreveport home. Working in the Willis-Knighton system in wound care and hyperbaric medicine, I wound up my medical career in 2012.

Some generous friends has termed me as "an American da Vinci" not necessarily for the quality of my work but for the diversity. I've been scientist, inventor, surgeon, aviator, and general. I now devote myself full time to the pursuit of Mike Torma artworks. Juried works have qualified me for the "Roster" [signature] appellation through Shreveport Regional Arts Council, and the highest exhibition tier with Bossier Arts Council. My work has received favorable press commentary from Susan Larsen, renowned art critic and art biographer. Recent exhibits have included Central Art Station and Artspace, both sponsored by SRAC. Upcoming exhibits include the Norsworthy Gallery in Shreveport, and 1800 Prime in Bossier City. The LSU Art Museum gift shop in Baton Rouge carries a selection of my premiere edition gliclees. Most importantly, my original pieces are carried by the prestigious Steve Jarrett Gallery, 618 Royal Street, New Orleans. Commissioned works and gallery pieces are appearing with increasing frequency in the homes of discerning aficionados throughout the South.

318 773 0815

9620 Calliope Lane

Louisiana

Shreveport

United States

http://www.facebook.com/miketormaartworks

Rockhurst University

1964