Tom Dickson Arts
i show how my mind works — what it means to be me: a spiritual stranger
i work at the limits of media, seeking to combine elements where accidents may occur;
my work recalls varied realities of psychedelic experience from youth.
most of this work has never been shown, though some images have sold.
oil on giclée canvas
MVD constructs
constructed urban landscapes of montevideo. ideas: accidental synergies in form, color, line and subject.
double exposed 4×5 E6 gicleé on canvas, applied oil pastel, paintpen. 22″LD x 18″ spring 2023.
spanish kitchen LA
abandoned images of an abandoned restaurant, overlaid with an abandoned back yard — meditation on abandonment and the beauty of living decrepitude.
ideas: variable perceived depth, haptic tangency, detail (focus), movement, texture.
Double exposed 45 Tri-X gicleé printed, water-mixable oil and oil pastel applied.
24″x 18″ (61 x 46cm) Film: mid 90’s, paint 2020.
paperface LA
lifemask of actor from a tv series, in natural backyard setting; contemplation of fame, hollywood and time.
4×5 wet paper negatives contact printed, scanned, output to gicleé canvas, applied oil pastel, water soluable oils, and enamel pen; 22″ x 18″ (50 x 40cm); fotos fall ’97, paint 2025-26.
motion: tony
twin series of worked morphs of three sequential panoramics.
juxtaposed still vs motion, variable detail, ambiguous ambience: hot vs. cool
images: late 90’s; paint: 2022-2025.
golden gate park
port side mind says “tree”, then “what kind” — starboard side abstracts to feeling + movement
ideas: variable perceived depth, detail (focus, paint vs foto), movement, texture.
holga 120 E-6 panoramic gicleé on canvas, water mixable oil and oil pastel applied. 30.25″ x 66.5″ (77 x 169cm) fotos spr. 2020, oils applied 2020-2022.
oil on canvas
first painting: freehand from a photo on discarded canvas; idea: window on life + death
water-mixable oil on found canvas with metallic paint pen and cracking varnish.
44″ x 66″ (111.76 x 167.64 cm) 2020.
acrylics +
dead C scrolls
heiroglyphic narrative pair — single painted 35mm negatives exposed to 24″wide long roll type-C photo paper, laminated; later: applied acrylics, enamel paint pen, and layered photo paper.
ideas: image as symbol, linear as time, non-verbal as emotion,
printing + lamination oct. ’97. paint dec.’24-feb ’25
memory steps
auto-biographic timeline through 12-step recovery: fotos aquired from my parent’s passing.
ideas: memory is plastic, pain persists, spirit transcends.
Collage: oil pastel, metallic acrylics, paint pen, family fotos (1910’s- 2000), fur, mirror shards, gicleé paper cutouts on canvas. 91.44 cm x 182.88 cm (36″ x 72″) 2020-2024
photography
equinox 1 UY
street service portals, grids of 12″ squares. idea of hyper-reality abstracted, random haptic line like asian inkbrush
shot on iphone 13 pro. gicleé moab slickrock metallic flush mounted onto aluminum. equinox, mar. 2023, ciudad de costa, UY
equinox 2 UY
random concrete panoramic images; haptic anomaly of concrete detail overlap + pano capture hiccups.
idea: random tar drizzle recalls handscript signature
shot on iphone 13 pro. gicleé hahnemuele metallic. equinox, mar. 2023, ciudad de costa, UY.
all 22″ LD, “culverted” 44″ LD.
buena vista SF
park flora and fauna rendered as light, aura and movement
iPhone capture gicleé printed on Hahnemuhle metallic rag. 30″x 20″(76 x 51cm) 2009-2012
faces LA
type 55 polaroid negatives printed on type C emulsion paper with motion, solarization; textures + color splits results of residual pola chemistry + anti-halation dyes. idea: random accidental chemical interaction key feature of images.
offered as 18″ or 48″ sq. Hahnemuele Rag gicleé. Fotos: ’98-’03. Gallery show Spr. 2006.
dia de los muertos 1 MX
cemetary outside cuernavaca MX, nov 1 2003. for me, proof of spirit energy:
close read shows paranormal faces, objects, presences.
handheld 35mm open shutter, multi-pop flash only — no manipulations.
20″ x 30″ hahnemuele lustre gicleé. Fotos: Nov1 ’03. Gallery show Oct. 2009 HOU, TX.
about me
I’m a single gay man recently from California, in my seventies, now living in Montevideo, Uruguay. An extrañero here, as ever. That sense of “otherness” is the core of my work.
Raised in Houston by an alcoholic pipefitter and a schizophrenic English teacher, survival meant fitting in, hanging on, and lying about everything.
Art wasn’t in anyone’s vocabulary where I grew up. Pop Art, Psychedelia, McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage offered transcendence; ADHD shaped how I think. Abstract expressionism, cubism, surrealism were formative.
A failed semester as a music student at UT Austin included an art appreciation class studying pure visual energy — how line, light, color and contrast push and pull the eye around. Falling in love with a photographer turned me toward photography: Art Center College of Design, then later, Cal State Northridge. Three years as an LA photo assistant taught me photography, and how little I cared for commercial work.
Earlier work explored time, process, and motion. “Dead C Scrolls”, twin color paper rolls, 38′ and 42′, are personal symbol narrative made by locking myself in a darkroom for three days sequentially printing painted color negatives. “FACES” (Palm Springs, 2004) color prints from Polaroid Type 55 B+W negs became my first gallery show, very nearly selling out.
I’m not after conceptual, figurative, or identity-driven work — I question the nature of reality, honor the reality of nature, and observe peculiarities of people.
C.V. >>>
EDUCATION
- BFA New Media — Academy of Art 2014
- California State University, Northridge 1996-7 — photography, experimental work, Gardner’s Art History coursework — field study, Spain and Italy
- Santa Monica City College, UCLA Extension 90’s — photog, art study; web design
- Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles 1990 — Photography & Art Theory
- University of Texas at Austin — Music Composition (partial); Art Appreciation (visual energy studies)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Freelance Photographer, Retoucher & Exhibition Printer — Palm Springs, CA to Montevideo, Uruguay (2004 – present)
- B+W, C41 Film Lab Technician + pro printer, Hollywood, CA — transition to digital imaging: Retoucher & Exhibition Printer (1994 – 2004)
- Photo Assistant, Los Angeles, CA (1991-1994) — auto, food, product, editorial, architectural, celebrity
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- “Dia de los Muertos 2” Regalito, SF (2014).
- “Dia de los Muertos,” A to Z, Houston, TX (2009)
- “Faces,” Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs, CA (2006) — sold majority of 18″ and 44″ square giclée prints
- group shows: Photo Impact LA, (1995, 2000), SMCC 1992
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
- Billy Bragman, SF, CA: 2 of “Faces”, 4 of “Equinox 1”, 1 of “Buena Vista”
- Keith Davi, SF, CA: 1 of “Buena Vista”
- Jose Mineros., SF, CA 1 of “Spanish Kitchen 8”
- Nancy Griffin, SF, CA: Commissioned Works: “Mother’s Day Vase” oil on canvas; “Bay Birds” plexi mobile
- Bill Evans, LA, CA: Tony: Motion 2: a.p oil on canvas; (1) “Santa Monica Pier Panos: Bumpers”
SELECTED WORK (unexhibited) —
- oils painted on giclée canvas photos
- MVD Constructs 2026 — 11 constructed urban landscapes
- Spanish Kitchen LA 2024 — 8 doubled images: building + backyard
- Paperface LA 2026 — 8 paper negatives: life mask in yard
- Tony: Motion 1-3 Green, Blue 2026 — triptych panoramics of desert landscape
- Golden Gate Park — triptych vertical panos of trees
- acrylics onto photos
- Dead C Scrolls 2024-6 — twin long roll photo series + applied acrylics
- Memory Steps — tetraptych photo assemblage + applied acrylics
- photography
- Equinox 1 2024 — grids of concrete manhole covers
- Equinox 2 2024 — panoramics of concrete formations
- Buena Vista SF 2009- 2012 — haptic park landscapes
INFLUENCES
- Avedon, Sudek, Callahan, Arbus, Witkin, Bravo, White, Stieglitz
- Modernism, Dadaism, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Pop