Art, // July 5, 2015

Tom Block — ARTIST

Tom Block

Interview with artist Tom Block —

“Jacqueline Moudeina”

1. Who are you and what do you do?
I am Tom Block, a visual artist, author and playwright whose work is collected under something I call “Prophetic Activist Art.” This is a model of using art as a means for social transformation, which grew out of my various activist projects. I published this model as a manifesto/handbook last year “Prophetic Activist Art: Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution” and will be teaching the model at the Institute of Prophetic Activist Art, sponsored by Dixon Place (NY).

“U Ba Thaw”
oil on canvas, 60″ x 36

I have painted hundreds of paintings, which have been exhibited around the United States, Canada and Europe; published five books and had plays read and produced in New York and Washington D.C. Additionally, I have spoken about my art and ideas at universities, conferences and galleries in the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.

2. Why art?
Indeed. Is there a higher calling than to mimic the original act (creation)?

“Broken Berlin Wall”
acrylic, ink and collage on canvas
(24-panels), 6′ x 72′

Cousins Public Art Project

3. What is your earliest memory of wanting to be an artist?
Quite late, actually. I “fell into” art at 26, through a series of petty misfortunes and dead-ends. I had no art background (one family member even exclaimed: “You couldn’t even draw a stick figure when you were a child!”), but once I had put charcoal to paper, I was hooked. I haven’t stopped painting and drawing since.

“Undersecretary of Absolution”
oil on canvas, 60″ x 36″

4. What are your favorite subject(s) and media(s)?
I like doing figurative work of heroes and anti-heroes, using either acrylic, ink and collage or thickly painted oil. I also have based my visual exploration of the world in blind-contour sketches, having done thousands of them over the years (and as recently as yesterday evening).

5. How do you work and approach your subject?
Like a Tasmanian Devil fighting dog. It’s slash and burn and build and do it over and over again until abandonment declares the work “finished.”