Merrily Tompkins

Merrily Tompkins created sculpture and jewelry out of found objects and also worked with paper. She studied at the University of Washington and also Central Washington University (Ellensburg) sometimes taking classes from her older brother, Don Tompkins, a prominent Northwest jeweler who taught there.

Starting in the 1970s, Tompkins began making sculptures, metal objects, and kinetic jewelry. She served as a jewelry instructor at Seward Park Art Studio in Seattle, Centrum Foundation in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, and the Factory of Visual Art in Seattle. She also was artist-in-residence at The Evergreen State College and Yakima Public Schools. She was twice awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. The exhibit “Down to the Nitty Gritty” at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in 2008 was the first solo museum exhibition of her work in thirty years.