I have a simple strategy that I've used for years now. Take a textured surface, cover it with a fluid medium, let the media and texture interact. Repeat. This approach mimics the way natural processes and our built environment interact. Concrete pavers drying after a rain produce light and dark shapes arranged on a grid. Drifting flower petals accumulate on sidewalks, outlining curbs and cracks. Traffic markings erode and are repainted, eventually producing accretions of history. This is what I'm after in my work — pattern that carries time and process within it. I intend that my paintings provide an opening into the currents and rhythms that animate everything around us in the same way that through closely observing ripples in a stream one can suddenly find themselves in a place deep and vast.
Tom DeGroot is a painter, erstwhile musician and former bus driver. Born (1952), lives and probably dies in Seattle, though it might be fine to expire in New Mexico. I have drawn my entire life, but only started painting in my mid 30’s. I've been a Zen student for almost 40 years, and I hope I've picked up some wabi-sabi along the trail.