Today we’re excited to be connecting with Thomas W Schaller again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Thomas W, thanks for joining us again. Just to level set a bit for folks who may have missed our last interview together, can you briefly introduce yourself?
I am a multi award-winning professional artist/author based in New York City. And I work in the medium of transparent watercolor . My work is an amalgam of classical representational art and visionary, imagination-based work using ideas of real or fictional urban landscapes to narrate genuine human experience

Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
Thanks very much for the interview and for the spotlight. I’m very grateful.

2024 was very positive year in my evolving art career. I won a number of prestigious art awards from – among others – the American Watercolor Society, the Salmagundi Art Club of NY, and the California Art Club. I was also named the recipient of the 2024 Raphael Award, and the 2024 Arthur Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture of Art.

Also, my work was included in a large number of national and international exhibitions around the world. I opened my new art studio in New York City, and had a second one-person exhibition at my gallery – Gallery 71, here in New York City.

Finally, I finalized the proposal to publish my fourth book, The Architecture of Dreams. It is scheduled to be published within the next year. .

We have now arrived at one of our favorite parts of the interview – the lightning round. We’ll ask you a few quick questions to give us all some fun insights about you.

Favorite Movie: Notorious : Hitchcock / All of Us Strangers

Favorite Book: Klara and the Sun : Kazuo Ishiguro / A Swim in the Pond in the Rain : George Saunders / Magic Mountain : Thomas Mann

Favorite TV Show: Succession / Ripley

Favorite Band or Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Sweet or Savory: Yes!

Mountains or Beach: Neither – Give me a Big City any time

Favorite Sport (to watch): F1

Favorite Sport (to play): Cycling

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Cross country running – Football

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: Artist or Architect

French Fries or Onion Rings: Fries

Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: Bobby!

Favorite Cartoon growing up: Rocky and Bulwinkle

Favorite Childhood movie: Fantasia

Favorite Breakfast Food: Almost any cereal

Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
We all face difficult decisions throughout our lives. And I think one thing we may all have in common is that we complicate those decisions and make them even more difficult than they have to be.

When I look back at difficult decisions I have had to make throughout the years, I am startled at the time it seems I have wasted in weighing options, worrying, stressing out and drowning in anxiety. This is truly wasted energy. It’s taken valuable time and is extremely unhealthy. Asking for the opinions of others seems logical but it often muddies already muddy water.

For the most part, I think all decisions become easier when we just become still, breathe deeply, and choose to trust ourselves. In almost everything, there is some part of us that already knows what we want to do – what we “should” do. We should always trust ourselves, trust our own instincts. Don’t be afraid to expect more, want more, and expect more of ourselves. If we can think it, we are up to it

Website: http://thomasschaller.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomaswschaller

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/twschaller

Twitter: https://x.com/twschaller

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomaswschaller

Yelp: https://www.threads.net/@thomaswschaller

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thomaswschaller

Other: https://bsky.app/profile/thomaswschaller.bsky.social

Image Credits
All images represented are of original watercolors completed by Thomas W Schaller

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