Elmira, NY—Thomas S. Buechner:  Seeing a Life will continue its run at the Arnot Art Museum through Sunday, May 20, 2007.  A reception for the artist and a catalogue signing will be held Sunday, April 15 from 2 to 4 p.m.
     Tom Buechner’s first museum exhibition was at the Arnot Art Museum in 1985. His second exhibition was a decade later. Now, after a third decade the museum celebrates Tom’s 80th birthday with Thomas S. Buechner: Seeing a Life.
     This exhibition is unique in vision and format. As Tom writes in the catalogue:
     By the time I was nine in 1935, I could draw Donald Duck in almost any position. I am now 80. The advantage in my writing this instead of somebody else is that I can tell you when and how and why these pictures were made. Painters who regularly save or photograph their work, as I have, can literally look at their lives, actually see it all spread out and that is what this is -- a painter’s life spread out. 
    This is an exhibition of pictures: finished paintings, pages from his sketch books, postcards to his wife Mary, and doodles. They all illustrate his education as an artist, his dedication to mastering the tools of his trade, and the humor and insight with which he approaches his subjects -- from flowers to world leaders.
    During this lifelong education as a painter, Tom Buechner found the time to be the first director of the Corning Museum of Glass and, later, the director of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1972, he became president of Steuben Glass, chairman of the Corning Glass Works Foundation, and president of the Corning Museum of Glass.
    At 80, Tom is still learning and still sharing the fruits of his labor through his paintings and through his teaching of yet another generation.
   The exhibition is made possible by F.M. Howell & Co., The Hilliard Foundation, The Tripp Foundation, Stein-Grandt Fund, Anna & William Baker Memorial Fund, MORF Foundation, Keuka Properties, LLC, Chemung Canal Trust Company, Arnot Realty Corporation, Elmira Savings Bank, NYSEG, and friends of Tom.

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