Tom Flanagan

Tom Flanagan’s paintings have been called, “jumpy, pointy, sly and deceitfully clever complex hard-edge abstractions that go deep into modernist logic.”

Abstraction allows me to build a kind of logical mess that is unique to my sensibilities. It’s the organization of the ‘mess’ that fascinates me. It’s a kind of nod to what’s outside the studio and my reaction to it.”

With an emphasis on geometric and organic shapes and lines combined with saturated colors mixed with middle tones and greys his work has been described as what happens when Jazz musicians articulate the notes in their compositions.

The famous American Jazz Composer and Musician, Dizzy Gillespie, once said that he wasn’t interested in music – he was interested in sounds. Similarly, I’m interested in how sensations and sensibilities guide visual experience. My paintings are about how those things fit together and what happens with that moment.

I’ve always been fascinated by artists who build their own language with a few colors, blank canvas and time. I tend to see such works as presenting something of a personal narrative of experience.

As a result, my work is more about listening than speaking.

Ultimately, I make pictures I want to see.