Biography

Tom Maakestad works and lives in Marine on St. Croix, MN where he has maintained a studio for the past 16 years. The Minneapolis area has been home base since 1992. Prior to that Tom and his wife Anna lived in Hong Kong for 7 years where they both had busy careers and traveled extensively throughout Asia. Trekking in Nepal, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand among other countries gave them a first had observation of different cultures and art forms.

His college work in literature and studio art propelled him into a parallel track as a graphic designer for the publishing industry as well as a full time fine artist. Maakestad’s exhibitions in the US and Asia have placed his work in many collections worldwide.

During the 1980s and early 90s he worked for the multinational publishing and trade show firm, Reed Elsevier, a fortune 500 company, and was based in their Hong Kong office. His main work was in creating trade show concepts in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and promoting those worldwide.

As a painter Maakestad’s main subject matter continues to be inspired by the broad valleys and agricultural regions near his family farm in Northfield, Minnesota. These landscape paintings have been included in collections at the Mayo Clinic and many others across the US and overseas. The US State Department purchased four of his southern Minnesota oil pastels for the Ambassador's residence in Oslo, Norway.