TôM III

To contact me if you're not a MySpace member, email [email protected]
I am currently showing my ARBOR VITAE ongoing art exhibitions in and around the Dayton area.
The art series is based upon my severe brain-stem stroke and recovery experience.
I began a self-directed art therapy exercise to help me get through the long and painful recovery process following my
near-death experience and the subsequent trauma and emotional turmoil. My "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series
is created using recycled materials - symbolizing my reassignment of once damaged and useless brain synapses to
reconnect in a new way to be useful and functioning once again. My blood, sweat, spit, and tears are a part of each piece.
ARBOR VITAE art exhibits:
I will have 4 of my art pieces on display at UD's ArtStreet Studio D as part of the UD alumni art exhibition.
Exhibit is displayed from May 19th until June 21st, 2008.
ArtStreet Studio D
300 block of Kiefaber Street
Dayton, OH 45469
http://artstreet.udayton.edu/about/directions.html
http://artstreet.udayton.edu/
http://events.udayton.edu/
937.229.5101
Reception and Open House
Saturday, June 21st -- 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Open to the general public
I have 11 of my art pieces on display at Ashworth's Salon in Dayton on Brown Street near UD's campus. My Ashworth's Salon display was hung
May 1st and will remain indefinitely.
Ashworth's Beauty Group
1100 Brown Street
Dayton, Ohio 45409
937.223.0395
I have 15 of my art pieces on display at Jimmy Modern Decor in Dayton's Oregon District. Jimmy's display was hung April 21st 2008 and will
remain indefinitely.
Jimmy Modern
605 East Fifth Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402
937.520.3782
My Art is available for sale, both in the locations where it is being shown and here online.
Look through the galleries and contact me if you are interested in purchasing my art.
Some are denoted as "no longer available" but there are plenty of excellent art pieces still for sale.
At last tally as of February 2008, I have sold, traded, or given as gifts 85 pieces, not counting
the three pieces that disappeared from my July 2006 benefit show at Oregon Express. I am at well
over 500 pieces in my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series and I am still making new ones!
I have chosen to keep my art reasonably priced so that anyone and everyone who is truly interested
can afford to have a piece of this inspirational and deeply personal art series.
Look below for the gallery links.
To contact me about art purchases if you're not a MySpace member, email [email protected]
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 1 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 2 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 3 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 4 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 5 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 6 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 7 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 8 for sale
my ARBOR VITAE "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series gallery 9 for sale
I am a GRAPHIC DESIGNER - with TWO COLLEGE DEGREES under my belt. I am currently
seeking full-time employment with a local design company, so please consider me for YOUR COMPANY!
Below is a small gallery of some of my design portfolio work to peruse:
my online portfolio of design & fine art samples
Dayton City Paper Jud Yalkut Aug 2007 blog link
Dayton Daily News Pam Dillon Aug 2007 blog link with FULL ARTICLE
Kettering-Oakwood Times COVER STORY Sept 2007 blog link with 2 pg article
Click on the link below to read my first-hand account of the day I had my horrible stroke.
My Personal Day of Infamy memoir direct link
Long story short, I had a massive brain-stem stroke (one of the most fatal or disabling types of stroke possible) on March 17, 2005 (Saint Patrick's Day). I was in the midst of a University of Dayton design class critique just as Spring Break was about to begin. Needless to say, I had a lousy Spring Break.
Initially, doctors thought I would not live through the weekend, and if I survived,
they expected me to be a quadriplegic. I went through a
long process of physical rehabilitation, relearning to feed myself,
write, walk, and eventually to drive my car.
I returned to the University of Dayton for the next fall semester
and had to resume my unfinished classes while simultaneously taking new, full
course loads. I had to take an extra semester than originally planned, and I
worked hard to complete as much of the leftover work as quickly as possible.
I graduated in May 2006 with a little catch-up work to finish over the summer.
On September 9th, 2006 I finally got my BFA diploma!
I am so very fortunate to have survived. Although I suffer from post-traumatic depression,
muscle spasms, difficulty with walking, and get exhausted easily, I am persevering and keeping
sight of my goals.
On October 14th 2006, I married Elizabeth (she teaches 7th grade English/Literature at a Fairborn middle school). Then it's on to finding a job and eventually buying a house.
Life throws some difficulties at us, but we can learn and grow through them!
direct link to the Tom Watson Medical Fund on MySpace
The TOM WATSON MEDICAL FUND was set up by some friends of mine to help raise money for the massive medical debt I was
swamped with following my stroke. I had student health insurance, but it was used up within a WEEK of my hospitalization. In addition, I had debt from various doctors, tests, and rehabilitation therapy.
To view & buy donated art for sale to raise money for the Tom Watson Medical Fund
To read the Dayton Daily News article and interview by Kris Neises: Dayton Daily News article
To read the University of Dayton online magazine article by Caroline Miller: UDQuickly “Karma paybacks…”
Jobs/work experience: I have had an interesting and diverse career so far. At this point I want to utilize my
two graphic design degrees in a good position at a local design company.
I have been an In-home health care-giver for an elderly stroke patient, administering medications/injections,
eventually through a G-tube; performing Physical and Occupational therapy exercises to keep the patient from
muscular atrophy, etc. (believe me, the irony is not lost on me that I later would have my own stroke and be the
recipient of many of the same treatments).
I worked in group homes for a number of years, as a care-giver for mentally retarded and mentally ill residents.
I was the activities coordinator, and a Special Olympics coach. That is both challenging and rewarding work,
and not for everyone.
I worked for three and a half years as a "fashion consultant" at Victoria's Secret Catalogue. Believe me,
by the time my job ended there, I absolutely HATED it. It was so unpleasant to me I was having involuntary nervous
reactions to VSC, including a gagging sensation every time I arrived in the parking lot, and for a while, my pupils
would inexplicably dilate, making it hard to see!
Anyway, there I took phone orders from customers (not telemarketing since I was only receiving calls from customers).
I did a lot of customer service and eventually helped train new employees. One cool thing about the job was the calls
from ALL OVER THE WORLD. One funny thing was the "pervert callers" who wanted us to describe items while they
'did their thing' — I even got a few women who were doing this weird crap!
I've worked at two different landscaping companies with a lot of loveless jerks (especially the owners). I suffered
through a bitter blizzard winter as a construction worker, demolishing and rehabilitating an historic home in
Inner-West Dayton (right across the street from the Wright Brothers' grandparents' home). The guy I worked for was
a bit touched in the head and was very abusive and would disappear for days on end, and he had no phone, so I was
at quite a loss when he had his "spells" of weirdness. As it turns out, after my stroke, I will no longer be able to do
extremely physical jobs again. I can't even run anymore, much less carry something heavy and maintain my balance.
I worked at Sinclair’s Clarion Newspaper as a weekly cartoonist and contributing writer. The student editor-in-chief
was a snotty young woman and I got a lot of flack for the off-beat content of my cartoons. She once told me that I
should try to go for the demographic of the college. I shook my head and replied, "This is about me and what I'm
interested in, not what every other yahoo at this school is interested in. If they want to read it, so be it." Of course
they weren't paying me enough to care whether people liked it or not and they needed all the content they could retain.
There were a few other cartoonists there at the time, but what they produced could barely be described as cartoons.
Writing a weekly cartoon is quite a challenge, and I don't know how Charles Schultz did it for fifty years straight!
Also, I have been a part of the printed-on-actual-physical-paper zine revolution from back in the day.
I self-published my own CoreKillZine (with a "one shot" issue called Miranda Rights & Other Ideas that came before CKZ).
I contributed to other zines also, most notably Dayton's Mutant Renegade Zine which is now an online thing called TheChickenFishSpeaks . From a back issue (#14 Spring 2000) of the original paper zines, a goofy interview by
Psycho Gail of me was conducted and published. The interview and old photos of me taken at the original Southern Belle
pool bar and hangout is reproduced in the MRZ archives.
interview of me in MRZ .
Click on the thumbnail above for one of my cartoon contributions to Mutant Renegade Zine.
I also wrote reviews for Chicago's M.K.Ultra Magazine and I contributed to other various zines here and there.
Tom Watson Medical Fund Benefit Show promotional material
Click above on banner to view Arbor Vitae exhibit info
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC UNTIL AUG 31st - Artwork for sale and donations box at Ha Ha Pizza
FREE opening event August 9th with special musical guest Joe Anderl
50 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Shapes For Hair - August 28th, 2007 through October 1st, 2007
9 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Shapes For Hair salon
2505 Far Hills Ave.
Oakwood, OH 45419
(937) 298-7555
The HOPE art show
Saturday Sept. 29th, 2007
C2 open studio
15 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Front Street Warehouse
1001 E. Second St. Suite
A-B door second floor
Dayton, OHIO
http://www.myspace.com/c2artstudio
(937) 458-2663
opens at 8 pm
food and drinks provided
show runs until ~ midnight
Starbucks in Oakwood - During the entire month of October, 2007
12 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Starbucks in Oakwood
2424 Far Hills Ave.
Oakwood, OH 45419
(937) 294-7582
open daily until 11 pm
McGinnis Center, University of Dayton - October 22nd through December 14th 2007.
30 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Opening Reception - Tuesday October 23rd, 2007 - 4:30 to 6 pm
30 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
McGinnis Center
301 Lowes Street
Dayton, OH
(937) 229-5101
http://artstreet.udayton.edu
Central Perc European Cafe - November 1st, 2007 until January 31st, 2008.
10 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Central Perc
2315 Far Hills Ave.
Oakwood, OH 45419
(937) 299-5282
open 8 am - 5 pm Monday through Saturday
afternoon tea is 2 - 4 pm
JIMMY MODERN Vintage
20th Century Modern Furniture, Art & Decorations
Storefront Shop - Arbor Vitae collage display (looks fantastic!) - October 31st. 2007 until [indefinitely].
16 pieces on display from my "Stem/ReAssemblage" art series.
Plus a box of 15 extra pieces in the shop for purchase.
Grand Re-Opening event - Thursday, November 8th, 2007 -
Featuring Dayton artists - Andy DeDominici, Tom Watson III, & Sean Stevens
4 pm - ribbon-cutting ceremony with Dayton's MAYOR Rhine McLin.
Jimmy Modern
605 East Fifth Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402
(937) 520-3782
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