In today’s youth oriented culture, growing older is often considered a negative by-product of being human — one that can sometimes be postponed with a nip here or a tuck there. But for artist Tom Wasik, growing older has meant something less superficial and far more positive — maturity of spirit.
In Wasik’s case, it comes down to a matter of self-awareness and understanding — which translates into a complete and utter acceptance of who he is. But for Wasik, at the age of 51 it has also meant shedding much of the baggage that’s been picked up along the path of life and, once again, become that child who delights in the sheer joy of creating — without ego, rationalization or self-consciousness.
“I never expected to make 50 much less 30,” says Wasik. “But I love my age. Growing up, I wasn’t told that sometimes it takes a lifetime to get things together — to get the life you want. Maturity’s a good thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean being stuck. We’re too youth oriented. Sometimes it does take a lifetime.”
Wasik’s latest paintings, which reflect the place where he now finds himself, go on view in “Daimon” a show opening at Hampton Road Gallery in Southampton on Saturday. Daimon is a Greek word and among its meanings is “a person’s attendant spirit.”
All of the large scale, color-filled abstracts in the show were created in 2009 and with this new work, Wasik feels he has reached a deeper place in both his life and his art.
“This is totally breakthrough work,” he confides. “I feel it’s mature work and where I’ve been headed all my life. I couldn’t have done this work until this age ... I had to have the experiences I had to get here.”
Wasik’s journey began with a childhood in Chicago followed by a degree from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and a move to New York. One of the most difficult things for an artist to find is a true voice — one that isn’t based on marketability or the desire for acceptance. Wasik notes that for him, finding that voice simply took time, emotional support — and ultimately — life experience.
“There are so many pressures to become a successful artist young, and everyone wanted to get on the gravy train,” he says. “But that wasn’t part of my journey.”
“Some kids come into this world and can’t wait to get their first violin,” he adds. “For others, it takes longer. Part of the journey is things get in the way and we get distracted and we’re told we can’t do what we want to do — it’s about what you’re going to do to make a living.”
“It takes a lot of courage to be yourself without apology,” he adds. “I was constantly tempted to give it up. There were times people didn’t even want look at the work and I thought, ‘Why am I bothering?’ If I was a good business person, I’d have given it up along time ago or I’d be doing very different work.”
“But there’s an article that was written on me when I was eight or nine and they asked what I wanted to be when I grow up,” recalls Wasik. “I said, ‘I’m an artist.’”
Four years ago, Wasik earned his master’s degree in social work and is still training in psycho-therapy — what helped remind him of his nine year old self is his current work as a therapist. Through his clients it has become evident to Wasik that truth is at the basis of well-being. In learning to help his clients become themselves, he has come to realize that he could no more give up painting than he could eating or breathing.
“Becoming a good therapist and a good artist took a lot of work, discipline and commitment,” he says. “It’s maturity, but it’s also what I have to do and who I am. Whenever I gave [painting] up, I’d be back to it the next week. If you use it and direct it, it can be blissful. If you ignore it, it can cause suffering. People who don’t acknowledge who they are cause a lot of suffering to themselves and others.”
Like therapy, Wasik feels his art is a mission of discovery — one that he’s undertaken using his heart rather than his head. The obsession over every mark that goes onto the canvas, the pressure to make work that is marketable, and the fear that everything has been done before are the kinds of thoughts that interfere with an artist’s search for vision — and what Wasik needed to push aside.
“There are those who feel painting is a dead language — they’re now working with refrigerated Vaseline and dead sharks in formaldehyde,” says Wasik. “But I discovered I love paint and what paint can do.”
“I love the texture you can create, the interaction of color and what painting can refer to,” he says. “This work is about the same stuff I deal with as a therapist — emotion, subtext, nuance, intuition and spontaneity.”
Wasik likens the artistic process to practicing meditation and getting to the point where he is relying on instinct and harmony, rather than logic, to determine what ultimately defines his canvas.
“I think my work always has an autobiographical aspect to it, and I feel my life has come together in what I do,” says Wasik, who is happy with the way things have worked out on the East End where he lives in Northwest Woods with his longtime partner, T.J. Parsell.
“Part of what’s going on at the age of 51 is I realize I love to paint, I love to write and I love to do psychotherapy. I love working that way. They all relate to each other. It is all about balance,” says Wasik. “I like to go where I push ego aside and approach it with curiosity and spontaneity. I turn off the thinking mind. It’s mediation in color.”
Ironically, Wasik has also found that growing up is about looking back, and recapturing the days when he made art for art’s sake — without thought to whether it would sell or meet with the approval of others.
“You go to art school, then you unlearn what you learned in art school,” says Wasik. “I had to get back to the childhood self that loved messing with paint and mud pies — without thinking, ‘Is this mud pie going to sell?’”
“It’s all new work, it just burst out of me,” he adds. “I’ve been working on pulling this show together for a while, and I’m grateful for it, but I’m trying to keep my expectations in the right place.”
“The success was in making the work and sharing it.”
“Daimon” opens with a reception on Saturday, November 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hampton Road Gallery, 36 Hampton Road, Southampton. For more information, call 204-9704.
Top: Tom Wasik with paintings from his “Daimon” exhibit at his studio in Northwest Woods.
