Influenced by his mid-western roots and upbringing in Chicago, IL, Tom Fox’s sculptural output is a reverential homage to the work-a-day experience of the blue-collar worker.  Drawing directly from his observations as the son of an over-head crane operator father, waitress mother, and a grandmother who was a professional welder, these deeply embedded roots are evident in his personal and professional experiences working blue collar jobs which supported a migration from Chicago to San Diego in 1982, a brief relocation to Galveston and Texas City TX, and return to San Diego where he has lived for over 35 years.

Fox is a sculptor, fabricator, material-smith, and educator.  These facets converge to allow for an easily digested conveyance of approaches to ideation, material understanding, technique, process and practice in the studio classroom or workshops.  His work invites the viewer to contemplate the question(s) beneath the surface and to consider for themselves many interpretations and possibilities.  Although he has created installations at large scale, most of his compositions are human torso scale; employing mixed media, and often suggest the form of a totem or plaque.  The viewer is invited to interact with sculptures, as movement draws attention to the optical highlights in, on and around the artwork surfaces.  Fox is intrigued by the road trip, what captures our attention in the periphery, alternate visual landscapes, and how memory works to recall sensory cues from our surroundings in alignment with the Badder – Mienhoff phenomena.

Fox and his wife, currently operate TomFox Art & Design and Slaghole Enterprises, a studio and workshop in San Diego CA.  He is currently the President of the Western Cast Iron Art Alliance Inc.  Tom has touched the lives of many students as an instructor of metal sculpture, crafts, and other visual art disciplines throughout San Diego county.  He conducts workshops around the country focused on various aspects of his unique moldmaking, casting and finishing practices.  He has been exhibiting his art in galleries locally and nationally since 1999.