Contact:
phone 9193580725
email tzaone@hotmail.com
Credentials
TR studied as a Painting and Design major at University of North Carolina at Greensboro for 4 years.
TR has been a featured live painter at TRINUMERAL 9, DEXFEST, TRONATHON, and MantraBash2. TR is featured on a regular basis at ARTISTIKA Nightclub in Greensboro, and can be seen painting live all over NC, from Wilmington to Asheville and is working on the rest of the southeast. Original TR paintings are currently available at Studio B in Greensboro, Golden Spiral Tattoo in Greensboro and The Juggling Gypsy in Wilmington, NC.
Booking TR
Interested in having TR paint at your event or show? Want to add some TR paintings to your gallery? This can be easily done, just send an email to tzaone@hotmail.com or call 9193580725
Bio:
I am Tom Roughton. I was born and raised in Durham, NC. With an architect for a father and a mother with an art degree, I grew up always drawing on something. Dinosaurs and spaceships are what I drew the most of, Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) was a big influence early on. I wanted to be cartoonist until I was about 13. I got my brother's copy of "Subway Art" in 1996 and became fascinated with graffiti and started studying letters. Abstract art immediately started making sense to me in high school when a teacher showed me Richard Diebenkorn and some of the other abstract expressionists. I began trying to emulate Diebenkorn's layered paintings, both the figurative and the abstract. I learned composition trying to emulate Franz Kline.
In college I continued painting until my focus shifted to drawing the figure and doing layered illustrations with Photoshop. For a few years, I mostly occupied myself with digital art, photography, and painting letters. While browsing flickr one day in 2008, I came across a photograph from a festival of a couple of live painters painting. One of the comments below said something to the effect of, "while I enjoy the art, performance painters have become almost cliche, with their paintings having little or nothing to do with the music or event."
In 2008, I started painting live. I paint on found canvases, usually on cardboard or wood or something even more local to the event if possible. I respond to the shape of the "canvas", I respond to the colors and the lights. I leave my easel and move about the crowd, then I come back and respond to the feeling of the people dancing. I respond to the music. I respond to my own lines and my own interpretation of what's being created before me. I use acrylic, charcoal, aerosol, and/or collage when applicable. I respond to those that respond to me. I feel there is still a larger experience yet to be harnessed and given to audiences by performing artists, both musical and visual artists. It's responsive live painting.
TR has painted live with:
Pnuma Trio
LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad
Future Rock
The Glitch Mob
Conspirator
The New Deal
Caspa
Two Fresh
DJ Bowie
Mindelixir
Dieselboy
Big Gigantic
Eliot Lipp
Alex B
Midnight Ace
Lazersword
Kraddy
Collective Efforts
Bluetech
Big Gigantic
M80-Dubstation
Bookworm
Agobi Project
Sci-Fi
Mochipet
Dibiase
Free the Robots
Deru
Jantsen
Evol Intent
Total Recall
Hammer No More the Fingers
Yo Mamma's Big Fat Booty Band
Silver Machine
Whodi
The Mantras
Tim Trouble
Tree City
Jables
Crewless
1Adam12
Mike Soden
Kris Krause
plus more...