One artist and a clan of mythical characters

Tom’s Clan profiles the sculptural work of California artist Thomas Long and his intriguing tribe of multi-cultural characters. Carved in wood over a span of thirty years, the clan possesses an alluring quality reminiscent of ancient Inca, Aztec and Egyptian artwork. The film captures Tom’s creative process in a series of vignettes where he details the myth and his motivation for each character in his clan.

Working out of a classic live/work warehouse space in a tourist town bent on erasing all remnants of funk, Tom finds himself priced out of his home and studio. Will he continue assembling his tribe or let it be subsumed by the forces of gentrification?

Thomas Long’s sculptural work draws from an eclectic range of influences. A gifted furniture designer and builder, his early furniture pieces draw from the French art nouveau, a period that dates from the 1890’s and into the early 1900’s. You can see this influence very clearly in his Loveseat piece.

He was later inspired by the Egyptian art in the “Treasures of Tutankhamun” exhibit that toured American museums in the late 1970’s. That exhibition included furniture from ancient Egypt which stimulated the creative process in the design of some of his furniture.

Later work, such as the Parrot Altar, and the Side table are crafted from Honduran mahogany, a very uniform, stable and relatively soft wood that lends itself to carving. The look of both these pieces is suggestive of a ritualistic purpose. Both are finished with multiple coats of oil based enamel that Long has rubbed through to create the appearance of many years of use.

The character of these furniture pieces led into the multi-cultural sculptural work that is portrayed in Tom’s Clan.