About Thom

At my core, I am a painter. That has always been the through-line of my work — from formal fine-art studies in the United States to illustration and design for international clients, to the creation of Tarot and oracle decks. While I have worked in commercial art and design, painting has remained my central practice: the space where exploration happens without constraint.

My work is informed by a long-standing interest in myth, symbolism, and the structures through which humans make meaning. I am particularly drawn to ancient symbolic systems — such as Tarot, runes, and archetypal narratives — not as belief systems, but as visual languages that encode psychological, cultural, and perceptual insight.

Alongside my artistic practice, I spent nearly a decade working closely with mentally handicapped individuals in France. This experience profoundly shaped my understanding of presence, attention, and non-verbal communication — elements that continue to influence how I approach perception, expression, and visual form.

Since 2011, I have also worked as a rater training artificial intelligence models. This long-term exposure to how AI systems learn, fail, and adapt has sharpened my interest in questions of perception, grounding, and meaning — particularly where human judgment and machine interpretation intersect.

Heart of Stars is the space where these interests converge: fine art, Tarot and oracle decks, and long-form symbolic projects. My current work explores the Elder Futhark runes through myth and visual narrative, treating them as a symbolic system rather than a doctrine — an invitation to reflection through image, story, and form.