A Window To Hackney: Meet Tom

So, who are you?

I am a London born multidisciplinary artist and poet making both physical and digital art. I am passionate about multiple things such as wine, art, fashion, music and have a bad habit of only looking at the bigger picture without seeing what is right in front of me. 

Why do you create? 

My number one goal and vision with my work is to bring about awareness for those struggling with depression and mental health issues such as anxiety. I want to communicate my sense of living in that world with those everyday battles and trying to overcome them. My work aims to turn those battles into colourful moments. 

What kind of artist would you describe yourself as/what modality do you work with? 

I would describe myself as using a mix of figurative and cubist expression with spray paint, acrylics and inks on canvas and paper. I try to achieve these same results also through my digital work. 

The theme for the Kip Wall is ‘connection’, what does connection mean to you? 

The theme for this project resonated not just with me but with a lot of people at the height of the pandemic. We all found ourselves isolated from society so connection became even more important within that time. Connection is a key aspect to maintaining your mental health as without connection we endanger not just our physical health but our states of mind. 

Breakfast of choice and why?

My breakfast of choice is champagne alongside American pancakes with bananas, maple syrup and smoked bacon at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

Tell us about the piece you created for Kip Wall… 

I wanted to emphasise the importance of staying connected, as per the theme. The project came up at the beginning of the pandemic and it felt natural to echo a sense of connection and trying to stay together. I had just begun working with digital art and wanted to expand this side of my practice therefore this 4 piece artwork is a blend of physical and digital art. It started as a painting and I worked on it digitally at a later stage. I tried to think about the things that we may do when we are alone, such as playing an instrument or using your phone but also utter loneliness where you need a friend. I tried to capture these moments individually on each of these panels. 

Take us back to the first time you ‘created’ something, how did it feel/what was it? 

The first time I spent all day on a single painting on canvas, time was lost. I got a huge sense of release from it which allowed me to recognise that it was something I wanted to do all the time. That was 5 years ago.