Tom L. Kregel

Tom L. Kregel, 63, died March 14, 2002 after an extended illness with cancer.
Born August 18, 1938 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, he was the son of Horace L. and Vera John Kregel. Tom grew up in Oklahoma City and received his BFA from the Oklahoma University. He received an MFA from California State University, Los Angeles and was an apprentice to Tomaso Popalao at the Classic Bronze Fine Arts Foundry. Upon completion of his Masters degree Tom taught design and painting at various city colleges and private institutions in Southern California. During that time he continued to develop his own style of creative expression. His work was exhibited in regional and national galleries including the Pasadena Art Museum. After leaving California, he lived for a while in Maine and exhibited at the University of Maine at Augusta and several private galleries in the northeast.
Since Tom's move to North Carolina in 1987, he exhibited at Raleigh's Artspace, The Durham Art Guild, Louise Jones Brown Gallery at Duke University, Sawtooth Center for Visual Arts in Winston-Salem, Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, and Craven-Allen Gallery in Durham. In 1996 he was a recipient of the La Napoule Art Foundation Residency in La Napoule, France.
Tom explored many forms of art in his career including printmaking, painting, drawing, as well as sculpture.Over the last decade he focused on sculpture as his primary means of expression and found a style that was perfect for what he had to say. Tom's visions were often humorously bizarre, yet the creations themselves are filled with a beauty than can onlybe achieved by passionate devotion to technical skill and aesthetic considerations.
His wife, Beverly J. Holcombe, survives him.
A celebration of life service will be held at a later date.
Memorials may be made to Triangle Hospice, any animal protection charity or other charity of one's choice.
Arrangements are by the Cremation Society of the Carolinas, Inc. Web site www.cremation.com.