"I am fascinated by the human desire both to hide and to perform. My studio practice conspicuously conceals found images of people by incorporating personal symbols such as hair, hoods, mirrors and masks and in the process attempt to reveal aspects of imagined inner personalities. For example, I appropriate Victorian Cabinet Cards by painting on the surface with gouache. I use these portraits as psychological clotheshorses in which to create grotesque and sinister scenarios, enabling me to project thoughts, fears and anxieties in an immediate and direct way and often with a macabre sense of humour. The people in these portraits are part of a community, a subliminal citizenship of my imagination."

Tom is the Art Director at The Community Schools at Camden and Opportunity Farm in Midcoast Maine, USA, where he lives with his wife, Kate.