J. Craig Thorpe's interest in rail and art dates from his formative years in Pittsburgh, PA. His grandfather regularly took him on train and trolley rides, and with his parents, he often lingered to watch the nightly passage of the Baltimore and Ohio's famed Capitol Limited. The imagery of those experiences shaped the foundation of a career.
Thorpe studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a BFA in Industrial Design. Following a short stint in the US Army Transportation Corps, he worked for architects and landscape architects in Virginia. After graduate school in New England, where he earned a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Thorpe moved to Seattle, WA and served as a Presbyterian pastor. In 1985 he chose to leave full-time parish work to begin free-lance architectural illustration. When Amtrak featured his painting of the new Olympia, WA station on its 1993 corporate calendar, Thorpe's rail art began to be recognized nationally.
While Mr. Thorpe produces historical or nostalgic works, his specialty is the presentation of contemporary railroading to the public with an evocative and inviting style. Most of Mr. Thorpe's published works are oil-on-canvas. His art has appeared in Arizona Republic, Denver Post, USA Today, National Parks Magazine, Alfred Runte's Trains of Discovery: Western Railroads and the National Parks (4th ed), and other books, newspapers and journals.
Mr. Thorpe is a director of the Washington Association of Rail Passengers, a consumer advocacy group, and also serves on the Executive Committee of the Issaquah (WA) Valley Trolley, new rail line east of Seattle. He occasionally volunteers as an interpretive guide on the Cascade Mountain portion of Amtrak's Empire Builder. Mr. Thorpe is also often asked to speak on the themes of railroads and art, and their relationship to landscape and community preservation. His wife and three teen-agers also enjoy riding the rails.
