SCRAParT
I create most of my pieces using mortar mix as the nucleus into which I embed found objects and other things. My inspiration is my uncle Max Spivak (1906-1981), a noted WPA-era mosaicist, muralist, and painter who installed whimsical mosaics throughout his Fishkill, New York summer residence, which I frequently visited as a child.
Tom's uncle, Max Spivak, inspired him to try mosaic art. Spivak was a muralist and painter seen here, standing in front of his mosaic at 5 Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan.
Corroded metal, which Tom finds on the ground, tends to be the dominant medium in his pieces, like this one, "Tricentennial" - America on its 300th birthday.
Tom admires the works of rural Georgia preacher Howard Finster, especially Paradise Garden. Finster took up art after seeing a vision in a paint splotch on his finger and heard the Lord tell him to "paint sacred art."
"I’m always looking down at the ground in front of me. Each footstep holds the potential for a new find–some object that has lived a life and is ready for a new purpose. Bits of rusted metal, corroded objects, shining shards, paraphernalia, flotsam, jetsam… little by little, I gather them and take them home. Each artifact eventually becomes an essential component of an abstract or representational piece. Visual art allows me to express my enchantment with the physical and spiritual worlds."
TOMG