Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tom Blood. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Tom thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I love to create. Always have and hopefully, always will. In grade school, high school, college – I always excelled at projects that took creativity. I’ve always been able to draw. Perhaps my best ability as an artist is my ability to scale. I can take a small sketch and turn it into a banner that’s 10′ x 20′ – and it will look like a big version of that sketch. As an artist, every painting I create begins with a sketch. I’ll often explore ten or fifteen different sketches until I lock in on one that says, “Paint me.” Coming out of high school, I knew I was good at art – but not exceptional. So I decided to pursue a job in advertising. I wanted to be the person who created TV and radio commercials. I got my degree in journalism with an advertising emphasis and my first job was a junior copywriter. I got my first TV commercial on the air within two months of having started. Creating advertising was always like being in a grown up kindergarten. It was great fun and I worked with so many different creative individuals and met even more along the way.
I have always had a love of art. Back in 1989, I was given an airbrush for Christmas and decided to learn how to use it. It was enjoyable but again, I realized airbrush wasn’t really my thing. I began painting with acrylics – shifting from a combination of airbrush and acrylic to all acrylic. As I’ve gotten older, I realize painting is a gift that I’ve been given. I have an obligation to use that gift. When I’m painting, I’m truly in my happy place.
So regular job? No, I guess I’ve never had one. Nor do I want one.

Tom, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an artist who thinks visually. I am a writer who thinks visually. And an artist who paints pictures with words. These days, I am slowly easing out of advertising (I do mostly social media these days).
In the very near future, I will be focusing primarily on my art. My brand is Tom Blood Art.
It’s a mixture of surrealism, fantasy and pop art. I have been heavily influenced by the works of the Belgian surrealist, Rene Magritte. Anyone who is familiar with his work will quickly see the parallels with mine. Of course, I am a mere hack when compared to Magritte. He was a master surrealist and I think, had one of the most creative minds of any artist I’ve ever encountered.
I have pursued my own path and I think have developed a fairly distinctive style where my work might actually be recognizable to someone that has seen it before. I paint ideas. I love it when my work makes people think and like it even more when it brings a smile to their face.
My work has sold on four different continents and has been viewed online more than 300,000 times. Slowly, people are becoming aware of the work that I do but I have a long, long way to go to get better as an artist. And isn’t that all that we can do – keep trying to get better!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I was creating all sorts of TV, radio, outdoor and magazine ads, we (because it takes a team to do great creative) won all sorts of awards. Those were always fun but also fleeting. You’d win something and by the next day, it didn’t really matter. What I liked was when people actually talked about ads that I created – and I’d somehow stumble upon that conversation. Hearing people talk about my work to me, meant the work had impact. These days, I get all sorts of compliments about my work on Instagram or Facebook when I post images of what I’ve created. But I really enjoy when my work is on display at a gallery and I’ll watch people viewing my work – they discuss it, they laugh, they seem to really enjoy it.
And there is no greater compliment than when someone likes your work enough that they’ll agree to buy it and all you can say is, “Thank You!”

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m in the process of a slow pivot right now, transitioning from being a full-time writer to a full-time artist. It’s something that has been in the works for the past few years and now, as I near retirement, I’ll stop working for others and begin working for myself. I’ll still write – but those will be blogs and newsletters about my work. I used to write by day and paint at night. Hopefully, in the future, that will shift to paint by day, do other things at night – maybe that will be writing, or more reading or getting out and about to enjoy the arts more. My son plays in a band and it will be awesome to see them perform more often.
Retirement is a pivot in and of itself. I intend to make mine an artistic one!

Contact Info:

• Website: tombloodart.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/tomblood_art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TBloodman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thblood/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TBloodlines

Image Credits
All photography and artwork by Tom Blood Art