Brewtifully Made
Here, Tracy Dawn Brewer shares creative insights, discussions with creative souls who are invited to doodle along with her and share their creative processes, and more.
Adding a twist, each episode begins with a doodle prompt and you can catch the final pieces from the episode on her YouTube channel, linked on the website! If you choose to also create along with her during an episode, share your work with the hashtag #brewtifullymade so she can shout out YOUR awesome creativity too!
Brewtifully Made
Legacy and Innovation in Abstract Art
What if the pandemic was the catalyst for uncovering hidden talents? Join me as I sit down with Tom Delamater, an extraordinary abstract artist who discovered his passion for painting during these tumultuous times.
Tom shares how his father's legacy as a skilled draftsman and illustrator shaped his artistic vision, and how his experience in publication design and advertising sharpened his eye for color, balance, and composition. Get ready to be inspired by Tom’s journey from creating a simple housewarming gift to becoming the featured artist at my new studio this September.
Imagine finding solace in art during a prolonged business trip. That's exactly what happened to Tom in the spring of 2021. Trapped in a hotel room, he channeled his energy into painting, inspired by Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionism. With no formal training and only basic supplies from Walmart, he created 50 paintings in just a few months. This personal story highlights the power of embracing new challenges without fear of failure and encourages others to begin their own artistic journeys, no matter their starting point.
In this heartfelt episode, we explore the serendipitous nature of artistic discovery and the enduring influence of family legacies. From the accidental innovation of a drip technique to Tom’s father’s unwavering dedication to his craft, we discuss how unforeseen events and familial inspiration can shape an artist’s path. Tom’s touching narrative about his father's resilience in the face of rejection serves as a powerful reminder to honor our roots and pursue our passions with unrelenting determination. Whether you're an aspiring artist or seeking inspiration, this episode offers valuable insights and heartfelt stories that will resonate deeply.
Check out the YouTube edition for images of Tom's father's amazing work and more!
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This is a special episode to me because it is one of my first of many that I have planned highlighting the exhibiting artist at my new studio and we recorded this in person at the studio. So you're going to hear us sharing a mic, because I usually do this remotely with my guests, and you're going to hear people coming into the shop, because we were doing this live at the shop. I hope you still enjoy it and I am thrilled to bring you Tom Delamater. He is a wonderful abstract artist here in the Stark County community and you get to hear all about his process and everything we have coming up.
Speaker 2:So enjoy Welcome back to Brutally Made. I am ecstatic about having Tom Delamater here for a special broadcast and a special episode, because he is my exhibiting artist for September. Welcome, tom.
Speaker 3:Thanks, tracy, it's great to be with you.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited for the show which is coming up for the entire month. We have a ribbon cutting this week on Thursday night and right after that is Tom's reception for his beautiful artwork, and I can't wait for him to share his entire story. You're going to start from when you were a child Now. Really I mean his influence from his father and what he shared with me so far is just wonderful, and your process and everything that you do with your art. I would love for you to go back as far as you would like, but really I just think that it's fascinating, so please share.
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate the chance to do that and talk about my dad, because he was a very talented illustrator and cartoonist. Dad was a draftsman by trade. He worked at Diebold here in Canton for 30 years and on the side he was always doodling and he took, he went to school, took some drawing classes, but he had also done that since his high school days and so dad just was a very, he just had a great eye and he developed over time to draw appealing characters and funny characters. But he also had the ability to see things in three dimensions, especially because he was a draftsman Right.
Speaker 3:So much of what he did for his career was he designed bank vaults and bank systems for Diebold was he designed bank vaults and bank systems for Diebold Right, and so draftsmen are kind of like architects, they understand how to do that and Dad saw everything three-dimensionally, so he had this ability to draw like aerial views of things and sketch out buildings and neighborhoods or what have you. So that was an influence just from the standpoint that he was always doing it. And then dad also, I think maybe underappreciated by us kids growing up, he had a lot of books on art and he had a lot of books that contain, you know, reprints of famous paintings.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we had that around the house all the time and growing up. Those were fun to look at, but nothing really clicked.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:During that period of time, and so he showed me a few things drawing and sketching and I started to do that when I was in high school. But then that just faded and I got into other things and got into my career and didn't pursue any of it until much later in life.
Speaker 2:I know that's what you shared and I'm going to see if I can sneak some of the drawings a couple of his fathers, because he has shared those with me, tom. They're amazing and I love his writing with them. And you were sharing how the perspective, like you said, in his mind, is translated on paper with a story and it's just.
Speaker 3:It's so creative and your career, like you said, really isn't based in art, wasn't starting out in art, but you're a very creative person. Well thanks, I was always around mostly art direction publication, design, advertising and because of that then I also worked around a lot of photographers and some really world-class photographers, and then you learn things about lighting and you learn about color.
Speaker 3:You learn about composition. So I never claimed to be an art director in the purest sense. I worked with a lot of art directors. I designed a lot of publications, newsletters and things of that nature over the years, flyers and things that I did myself. I mean I had that ability to do. But an art director to me is somebody who has taken that to a whole nother level. But I worked with a lot of our great art directors over the years in publishing and in advertising and so again, those things start to rub off on you and and you learn from those people photographers, art directors and so on and so it was during that period of time, I think, that I gained a real appreciation for color and balance and composition and things, and that obviously has served me well.
Speaker 2:It has. Yeah, Because those are some of your strongest suits. When you look at your pieces and the abstract and impressionism that you tend to describe your pieces having, you can see that. But the influence of that experience also comes through, Just like you're pocketing all of that knowledge as you're talking to an art director, you're talking to a photographer, your layout, all of that I can see that bits and pieces are in your work and I just think it's fascinating Also the fact that you did not even start painting until the pandemic.
Speaker 3:Right, that's when it started.
Speaker 2:That is incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of wild. I told you the story and, to be as brief as I can, I told you the story and to be as brief as I can.
Speaker 2:You know we can talk a long time.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, my daughter was moving and I thought I didn't really need anything, but I thought, well, it'd be cool to do something sort of as a housewarming. So anyway, I decided, well, I'd always thought about air quotes painting and had never done it Right All these years, and so I thought, why not? So I literally went down to the local discount store got some inexpensive canvases. Um, but, of course, first I went online and I Googled some painting instruction and I found some videos and I found one that I thought, well, I could do that, and it was a blotting paint, blotting technique, which is very simple and very basic, and I thought, well, I can do that. So I got the materials and I did a painting and I ended up, just for fun, putting it on my Facebook account, and a lot of people that I knew said hey that's really good.
Speaker 3:And then people started asking me could you do me, do one for me? And so I did a few as gifts, and that's really how it all started. But even then I wasn't necessarily thinking, oh, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be an artist.
Speaker 3:But what happened was the following spring. This would have been in 2021. I was out of town on a kind of a fact-finding business trip is what I'll call that and I was cooped up in a hotel for several months three, four months and so that got old real fast. Plus, the pandemic was still having an effect. People weren't out. A lot People still were not. You know people were wearing masks.
Speaker 3:This is still a year later. So I was in the room a lot and that can you get to be stir crazy. So there was a Walmart about a half mile down the road. I went down there and I picked up some canvas panels and some Walmart acrylics and some plastic palette knives and some inexpensive brushes and I just took it all back to the room. I covered the table that was in the room with the blanket and I just started painting.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:And I just went wherever it took me. I didn't claim to have any expertise, but I would go online and I would bring up images of artwork and you know, obviously it took me in the direction of abstract art, but I love it anyway and that's another story because of the Jackson Pollock influence. But I just started doing it and over the course of that spring, just about four months not quite four months I did about 50 paintings.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I had the time.
Speaker 2:Right and.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to claim they were all worth looking at, but you know I did them.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:They're still around somewhere. How amazing to me.
Speaker 2:I just love that story and I love how you're still evolving in your style and you're not afraid to try something different, because some of these you told me you know you've had a lot of people comment how much they love them and it feels like, oh, I'm getting a lot of great feedback and that leads me to feel like this would be successful. But then you turn and you try a different style.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's. It really has evolved over time. You know I I didn't mention Jackson Pollock to drop a name by any means.
Speaker 2:You know, you just can't know, but visually I think that helps people, that helps people listening to kind of get an idea you don't want to presume to do something like that, but it really goes back to when I wasn't painting.
Speaker 3:I wasn't an artist of any kind. When I first saw the film that Ed Harris did about Jackson Pollock, I was really fascinated.
Speaker 3:Again, don't want to go too deep into all this kind of stuff, but I really identified with the character kind of stuff but I really identified with the character and I think now, looking back, the reason is that as a child I spent a lot of time alone and even when I was in school in middle school, high school I almost felt at times like somebody, an observer in a movie, watching what was going on around me as opposed to being immersed in the experience. So if you want to call that a loner, you know you can call it that.
Speaker 3:People are surprised when I say that, because I've always been in public relations and I'm comfortable speaking in front of groups, I'm comfortable in social situations. I don't have a problem with that, but it was the circumstances of life. I was alone a lot and so when I saw the film it was just the, the character and the way it was portrayed. There were things I could really identify with. It was interesting to me the effect it had on me. I'm not an addictive personality, it's not an alcoholism, drug addiction thing or anything like he had trouble with. But it was just the dialogue and it was the sense of how he progressed as a person and as an artist that was really fascinating to me.
Speaker 3:You know, pollock was not a kind of a person anybody really should emulate but at the same time when you see a story like that and you can feel empathy for the character then there's a connection there, and I didn't make the full connection until I started painting, and that's when I kind of went back to all of that and I began to read about him and other abstract expressionists and I found myself really immersed in that time period and fascinated by it yeah. And I still am. So it definitely had an effect on me, and then now it's begun to kind of show through in some of my work too. And I don't run from it.
Speaker 2:I mean it just does no, and I love that you're embracing it and that accidental aspect of the whole thing, like you didn't know that you could do this, or I'm going to try this and it may fail, but I'm going to try it anyway. And you created over 50 paintings just by, you know, trying. And we talked about this a couple of times, especially recently that you've been hanging your show that people are just so scared to just even try and they see your work and it's like, oh, I would love to do that and that's always.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I like to tell people just just go ahead and do it. That's exactly how I started and I didn't have any expertise. I didn't have any. I didn't make any claims. I didn't presume to think I was going to necessarily keep doing it. But here I am and you know, the only thing I can say to people is if you really feel like doing it, then just do it. Just do it, Just try it. You don't have to start with any expertise. Don't let your fear or your lack of knowledge or familiarity with any process hold you back from trying. You can always find people who can help you fineune your work, your technique, your skill level. You can learn from people, you can take courses, you can do all kinds of things, but you can't do any of it if you don't start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's okay to find someone like a Jackson Pollock who you resonate either visually, emotionally with and try to replicate some of those. You know moves and drops, and that's totally fine. Start there, because that will give you confidence to build on that. Some people are so worried that, oh, it's going to look just like that. It's not. Your hand will come through, your style will present itself. You don't have to know the rules, and I'm doing air quotes now of art.
Speaker 2:Those are all made to be broken. It's great to learn them. It's wonderful to have that foundation. I think it's fascinating for art history and knowing foundational things about color and light. It helps me want to learn more. I love learning, and so I think that that should be a driving force, but it should not be the reason that you start because you don't know those things.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And yeah, it's just you and I were talking about this the other day and talking about the fear factor, which became a term, but, yeah, you don't want to let that scare you. And and the other part of it too is for me. I was, you know, my career. I was fortunate in that my career in public relations and advertising and marketing put me in contact with so many.
Speaker 3:Definitely, you know people that had had skill, particular artistic photographic skill. What have you Excuse me? And then you put on top of that the fact that I worked in education for a number of years. I worked in doing marketing in K-12 and then I also worked in higher ed and my most recent full-time position was with a community college district in Texas and we had a gallery at one of the campuses. We had art faculty there just some superb artists, art historians, photographers, sculptors.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And so I was around them a lot, because our department again I was doing public relations, so we helped promote the drama, the music, the art department, the gallery, and so I was around them a lot and I was fascinated by their skill, their talent, their knowledge, just high respect and regard for all of them.
Speaker 3:And so over time, then too I would attend the different exhibitions at the gallery, and the gallery director would have artists from the Dallas area and beyond come in and do shows. So then you're exposed to a whole, a whole nother group of brilliant artists, and it was just a cool thing to be immersed in and to be around, so that again, I wasn't even doing art, I wasn't painting. I didn't think I had any aspiration to that, I just enjoyed it. Right and but it rubbed off.
Speaker 3:And so now, you know I I reflect back on those times quite a bit, when I'm when I'm doing my work, or when I'm hanging paintings or, you know, curating or installing a show. Yeah, those, those things rub off on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you think back.
Speaker 3:That's a huge thing, but if I hadn't started at some point and this has all happened after all of it. I know All those experiences added up and then one day I flipped a switch and here I am.
Speaker 2:I know it's not like you were painting in the middle of this and you're asking questions that you could apply right then. I mean, it's just all of this knowledge built up.
Speaker 3:I had no idea, no notion I was ever going to do it. Go figure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's incredible. Your work is incredible and I'm also really excited that you have agreed to teach class. So we decided on the date. So it's going to be September 30th in an evening and you're going to instruct and lead, but really give people the autonomy to do their own work with abstract art, and they're going to get to create two camps.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the idea here is just start. There you go, and that's the thing, just start. And so anybody who's listening and would like to try, just come and start. Don't overthink it, don't think you don't have the ability, don't think you don't, you, you're not qualified. Um, that's unfortunate.
Speaker 3:You know, when I look at your work, when I look at my work, when I look at anyone's work, now I, I look at it so differently and, um, I, I really don't look, I'm not a critic of artists, um, because why? You know, that's just not my role. I'm not a critic, I'm, I'm an encourager, I'm an admirer, I'm a fan and, uh, I just think it's great when people put themselves out there and give it a go, and that that's that has value to me, that that's worth something, and so, yeah, these classes, um, this I appreciate you, you, you appreciate you inviting me to do it. I plan to show one of the techniques that I kind of picked up early on that I found, I think, let's say, easy enough air quotes again to do and yet still produce a piece of art that is, you know, that you can be, you can be happy with.
Speaker 2:You can be proud of Right.
Speaker 3:Right there on the spot.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I think we can be successful at this class in showing people what's possible. It's not super ambitious, but it's ambitious enough to where I hope people can come away and say you know, I did that and I'd like to do more of those. Right, that'd be a really, really cool. You know experience to know that some people came and did this and then continued on from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I think that would be the best feedback because, that influence and you're setting that in their mind.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:So I just am thrilled for one that you agreed to exhibit. I just love that it's here and I love that we're going to have this episode out, and all of Tom's information from his website and social media platforms will be in the show notes so you can contact him if you would like to have his work showcased in your gallery. That is what this space is for. Has work showcased in your gallery that?
Speaker 2:is what this space is for is a jumping off point for other people in our community to get to see work of other artists. Tom is a resident artist at Patina Art Center downtown Canton Beautiful facility that promotes so much in our arts district and we love having Right in the center of it and a lot of artists and photographers. Always beautiful shows and I just love everything that they're doing there. So I appreciate that you've got some pieces here and it's just to expand everyone's knowledge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very much so, and you know we were talking about this last night or the night before. We've been working together the last couple of days, but night before we've been working together the last couple of days. But, um, you know, one of the things that I re, I remember from 20, whatever years ago it was when. Ed Harris did the Pollock movie, so when I watched it again, you know after.
Speaker 3:I, I started painting and it's that whole idea of serendipity we were talking about where and I thought that that Ed Harris portrayed it really well and the story's been told many times about Pollock, where he effectively just mistakenly dripped paint on the edge and corners of a canvas, was fascinated by it and then started doing it more. And of course, pollock worked on the floor and he had large canvases and he walked around them and he walked in them and he, you know the whole thing, but he, you know, started. That's where he started doing the dripping, that's where he started doing this action technique.
Speaker 3:And I you know when I saw the movie again after I had got involved in painting.
Speaker 3:Of course I saw it in a whole different way, but I remember how that resonated with me 20 plus years ago when that scene occurred, and it makes you think what, if you know? What, if that event had not happened? What would Jackson Pollock's work have continued to look like if that had never happened? But it took him a whole nother direction. It was a direction that revolutionized, for better or worse. There's a lot of people that don't like Pollock's work. There's a lot of people who do, but it revolutionized art during that period it was one of the things that revolutionized art.
Speaker 3:It might've never happened. So, you know, we all, I think, encounter things like that, whether it's in just our daily lives or in our artistic pursuits, and it's really cool to think about time and chance in addition to intent, and a lot of the work that I've done has been time and chance and then a lot of it's intent. I'm sure you've experienced the same thing.
Speaker 2:Oh God, absolutely A hundred percent. Now when I'm at in this space, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So you know again, just start. You got to start, and then you might be surprised at what happens, but I'm grateful for it. I'm really grateful for the way art has has led to a lot of fulfillment, has changed my life, I'm sure, in many ways, you know, and so it was late in life. I mean that rather than sit there and think, well man, wouldn't it have been cool to go to art school when I was 20 years old and been painting all those years? This is what I was meant to do at this particular time.
Speaker 3:So, I just try to embrace it and go with it.
Speaker 2:I feel the same way. I can't even tell you how many times we talked wasn't encouraged to do art because it wasn't going to be a career that would sustain a lifestyle that my family thought that I needed to have. You know, as a young woman and having that, I don't want to say regret that I didn't go to you know art school. I wanted to, I wanted to badly, and I do have you know the same kind of thing, man. What if that would have happened? But I'm grateful for where I'm at now and I am not waiting to do this any longer. I'm doing it now and that's important message for me as well to get out there, just start, don't wait yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what you've done with this business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it and when you said that, I'm like, oh my God, stop. I'm thinking this is big, I love what you've done here.
Speaker 3:Thank you, but you've stepped out and you had to do it.
Speaker 2:I have to draw every morning before I start work. At 730 in the morning, I have to get it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It bothers me all day if I don't have a chance to do that. And it's like this place, as soon as this really came to fruition and it was an actual viable thing that I'm like I'm going to make this happen it has energized me beyond ways that I can even explain, because people are like don't you sleep, don't do this, because I'm working a full-time job on top of this and I can't explain how I am full of energy, full of just promise for this takeoff and do well, but not just for me, but for the community. That's so important.
Speaker 3:It is. And one thing I almost forgot to mention that I wanted to be sure to mention, and you and I did talk about this yesterday because asked me you know my dad passed away in 2018. And you asked me so, did he ever see any of your art, any of your work? And he never did, and you know that's unfortunate. It would have been cool. He would have loved it. He would have loved it. Dad didn't do, he wasn't an abstract guy. He would have loved it, though. I guarantee you he would have loved it though.
Speaker 2:I guarantee you he would have, he would have loved it.
Speaker 3:He would have been proud, he would have raved about it. Whether it was good or bad didn't matter, cause you know, he he was a fan, but um, he never did see it and it would have been cool if he could have. So, you know, many times when I doubt myself or I don't feel like doing anything, or whatever you know the stuff we do, um, I just think about my dad, you know, and in a way, so much of what I do is, uh, to honor him, um, because of the influence that he had with um, with his work. And you know, I should probably share that real quick story of the fact that when dad did his cartooning, back in the 60s and the 70s, I showed you a bunch of cartoons.
Speaker 2:Yes, you did, they're amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he would do these single panel cartoons and they were really funny. But you know, like anyone in the publishing world or anything else, if you don't have an agent and you're not with a syndicate and you don't have these ways to get your work out. There, you're just a lone wolf flying solo doing your thing, and so dad didn't have any way to market his work, and so, as a result, over time, he just submitted them to a lot of publications, but they were never accepted, never published.
Speaker 3:We're going to have to share some, exactly A couple of people can see the style you know, and so I think about the fact that he didn't have the opportunity that I have now, and so it's just an incentive to keep going and not not give up and not not get down, because he persisted and his, his joke was he had rejection slips from some of the finest magazines in the world.
Speaker 2:I love that statement that he said, so he had a good sense of humor about it.
Speaker 3:He was a realist, and so, yeah, he's still a big motivational factor.
Speaker 2:I love that. Well, thank you, tom, and we have a live story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people are coming in. That's right and I love it, so that's good yeah.
Speaker 2:So thanks again. You bet I can't wait to share this with everyone.
Speaker 3:Sure Well, thanks, Tracy.
