Sculptor Tom Michelson was born in Kansas City, Mo but spent most of his childhood moving from city to city with his mother after his parents divorce. His work and aesthetic are influenced by artists Charles Bukowski, Tom Waits, as well as Robert Arneson and West Coast Art Funk movement. Tom’s work offers a glimpse into the lives of those denizens of the soft underbelly of the Mission and Tenderloin.
Tom had been working with ceramics for more than 20 years, but his cancer diagnosis a few years ago encouraged him to leave his day job and become a full-time studio artist. The travel industry was putting food on the table, it did not feed his soul the way that art did. Tom left travel and began his descent into being a full time artist.
Tom opened the Red Brick Studios in the heart of the Mission to build community and and to provide him enough space for him to work on a larger scale. The heroic scale of his work is often diametrically opposed to the subject matter creating a unique tension in the work.
Tom currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and their two cats. Tom’s work has been displayed at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, California, Smaart Gallery in San Francisco, and Siskiyou Museum in Dunsmir, California.
