State Representative E.J. Thomas (R)

Office
Ohio House of Representatives, 27th House District, Columbus

Legislative Committees
Chairman, Finance and Appropriations; Ethics and Standards; Veterans' Affairs

Years in Office 15

Personal
Hometown, Logan; BS in Accounting, The Ohio State University, 1973; MA in Political Science, Ball State University, 1980; two children - Eddie, 19 and Alicia, 17

Arts Support
Former member OAC Board; former chairman Columbus Symphony Orchestra Picnic with the Pops committee; former CSO board member, chairman, CSO Public Affairs Committee, co-chairman, Celebrity of Note Series; board member, Ohio Arts and Sports Facilities Commission

Favorite Cultural Pastime
Symphony, visual arts, sculpture, ballroom dancing, performing arts, films, jazz

Favorite Artist
Sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon and Mozart

Last Good Book Read
Budget, State of Ohio



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Working with the young people was exciting and challenging, Tomczak said. "They aren't unlike other teenagers," he said. "They just have more interesting stories to tell."

Tomczak began by teaching everyone the basics of ceramics production, then selected a core group of boys with ambition and artistic ability to do the majority of the projects. The residency ended with the exhibition of the boys' work.

Here is what some of the participants had to say about the project:

• I liked the pottery very much. I learned how talented I really am at art. I learned all kinds of things I didn't know before Mark came to the center.
• Mark was a very cool guy.
• Therapeutic. Helped me relieve anger. Made me think about different things.
• He let me express myself by working with clay and I thought he was a heck of a lot of fun. Sometimes I miss him being here, he still is a part of my life.
• He has a great tolerance for nagging teens. I hope the clay project keeps going on.
• It was fun. It also took my mind off other things. I made a mask, two cups and some tiles. Working with the clay taught me that I could do things that I didn't think I could do.

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Walter Kulash will speak April 21 at noon at the Columbus Athletic Club, 136 East Broad Street, as part of the series Growing Inward: Rebuilding the Center City, co-sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council. Kulash, a traffic engineer with an Orlando-based community planning firm, specializes in livable traffic design. In his presentation Livable Traffic and Transit: If You Lived Here You'd Be Home by Now, Kulash will discuss balancing traffic performance with other desired qualities of the street such as its value as an address, retail friendliness and role as a premiere public space. For reservations call the Metropolitan Club reservation line, 614/841-8742.

A major exhibition of work by French painter Chaim Soutine is at the Cincinnati Art Museum through May 2. An Expressionist in Paris: The Paintings of Chaim Soutine features more than 50 of the finest works by Soutine, known for his expressive, gestural and thickly painted canvases. His art, consisting primarily of landscapes and still-lifes, has been described as nervous, distorted, raw and extravagant. For more information contact the museum at 513/721-5204.

The tenth annual Quilt/Surface Design Symposium will take place June 12-25 at The Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus. For more information contact Linda Fowler at 614/297-1585.