“You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see.”

– Tadao Ando

“Truth, which is important to a scholar, has got to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.”

– Jeane Kirkpatrick

“We call those works of art concrete that came into being on the basis of their inherent resources and rules - without external borrowing from natural phenomena, without transforming those phenomena, in other words: not by abstraction.”

– Max Bill

Each job pretty much requires that we start all over from the beginning. Working out of habit rarely provides the most appropriate solution. The best answer is specific.– Tom Schulz

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ENNISART / TOM SCHULZ, MFA
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Sheila Ennis and Tom Schulz founded ENNISART in Boston in 1996 as an extension of their shared vision regarding the nature of home, art and space.

What made a place feel like home? The answer was proved in considering color and texture, but also with contemplating the seemingly intangible quality of "rightness." They were convinced that this quality could only be accessed through careful listening, considerable pondering, and a willingness to implement both proven technique and practiced experimentation.

ENNISART has completed many successful commercial and residential installations throughout the United States. See projects and read the list of completed public projects for more details and photography of projects.

In addition to 26 years in the building and construction sector, Tom Schulz received a Master of Fine Arts in painting from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in affiliation with Tufts University in 2000.

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THE THUMBNAIL HISTORY

I first started “mixing mud” in the mountains of North Carolina in 1972. I have traversed back and forth between the worlds of fine art and construction until the line dividing the two has gotten so faint so as to be barely there. This fusion has resulted in what I term “an adventure in the concrete and the abstract."

Each time I think that the possibilities of concrete as a medium have been exhausted, I discover something new. Part of the excitement involving this process is that I am constantly being asked by clients to go into unknown territory. Working together in a collaborative exploration often yields the most surprising and wonderful results.

No one should have to settle. Not the artist and certainly not the client. Now compromise is altogether another topic. For me, the definition of compromise is not negative. When someone loses, it is not compromise. That’s losing. Compromise is an agreement to meet in a brand new space. A place that may not be recognized until you are there. I started doing business in a small town. My clients and I shopped the same stores. I realized early on that either fairness was going to play a critical role in how I was to approach business, or I was going to spend a whole lot of time hiding out behind the frozen food department.

A friend of mine exhorted me to define what I wanted and then find a way to make it happen. She said, “buy the best and you only cry once.”

I have often said that my mother could make a dress out of Bisquick. Without disparaging Mom’s biscuits, I have to say that I am developing a similar approach to concrete. It may be one of the most versatile and appropriate materials I’ve ever worked with.

I like to do the work myself. I like the heft of the material. The coming forward of the color. How can you send someone out with a cell phone and a caulk gun and say, “Deal with the variables, call me if there is a problem?"