Tom Carapic
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Tom Carapic (born 1939), full name Tomislav Sava Carapic, is an artist who specialises in found object artwork.
Carapic was born in Velisevac, Serbia (then Kingdom of Yugoslavia). He was educated at a military school in Herzegovina in the 1950s, and served as a sergeant in the Yugoslav People's Army. Afterwards he was denied a college education, possibly because he was not a member of the Communist Party, and illegally crossed into Italy in 1961, and, from there, emigrated to the United States.
In 1965 he began attending classes at the New York Art Students League, but dropped out soon afterwards, eventually attending the Wilfred Academy of Beauty Culture. However, he was unable to find steady beauty parlor work, and worked in menial labor while attending classes in Spanish Education at Manhattan Community College. Due to a problem with accredation, he was forced to switch to classes in the field of studio art.
In the late 1970s, Carapic began experiencing hallucinatory visions; claiming that his degree problems were caused when "the evil marriage bureau massed the troops" against his college and proceeded with "an Air force bombardment" of the school. After receiving other visitations, he began making and showing his art.
Most of his art is centered on found objects, most famously computer keyboards, especially those by IBM. Most of his art consists of these objects, marked with black Sharpie markers, and with green thumbprints and handprints along the objects.
