resonance series: tom abbiss smith

Published on 2020-06-06 00:00:00 by Jasper Golding

Welcome to this installment of the ‘Resonance Series curated by Jasper Golding. _This feature, running every other Tuesday, introduces you to musical individuals through the art forms they engage in, telling a personal story of their creative output and how different mediums influence each other._For this edition we introduce you to the idyllic forms of Tom Abbiss Smith The deep cuts of Tom Abbiss Smith’s paper works first caught my eye at the d&ad new blood convention in 2018. He was manning a stand there which displayed his smoothed out homages to nature and idyllic forms. A kind of shrine to his chilled-out work, his stand showed a bounty of patterned dopeness.

Tom specialises in surface design, and as a result he gets to see his work, worn, sat on, opened, switched on and lived among. I found this astounding at the time, I never really thought about the fact that brands would need artists to produce patterns for their surfaces. Although tom’s work is semi abstract and super expressive, it has a powerful ability to improve a setting.

Tom’s throw design for Slowdown Studio.

Toms ability to improve a setting extends to his audio creations too. You can find his musical accompaniments to a chill pad here:

Abbiss · Papaya

From my meeting with Tom I had the perhaps obvious realization that art didnt have to be flat, as an artist you could create expressive works and that in itself is a viable product. A short chat with him solidified my opinion that really sound people could pave their own way in the creative industry, engaging in a kind of duality of personal expressive work, and it’s outward counterpart. It’s like the personal benefits of creating something are carried through to the final product, and the buyer can feel that energy when they are thinking about putting it in their house.

Tom’s cushions for Freedom.Tom explains his approach to his medium, and the links between different forms of creation here:‘The 2 biggest inspirations for my artwork are nature and music. Im almost always listening to music, (generally Hiphop, Funk and Jazz) when creating my art, and I feel that the vibe and atmosphere of whatever is playing influences my work. I think that the way I make my designs is very similar to how music is made, with there being lots of layers, details and interaction between components within the creations. I tend to make beats when creating music so I like to sample jazz and funk, and I think this is also really similar to how I might ‘sample a shape, texture or photograph to put in my art.’‘Recently me and my good friend Lee Bartlett have been thinking about starting up a clothing brand called ‘Sticks. Weve been getting inspired by nature, folklore, mythology and music and want to focus on those topics as our inspiration. Its very much in the initial stages at the moment, but were hoping that once lockdown ends, we can get to work!’

‘Recently Ive had the urge to start reading again. Im usually indulging in comics (such as ‘Headlopper by Andrew Maclean, ‘Skip by Molly Mendoza, and Joe Todd-Stantons ‘Brownstones Mythical Collection to name a few) however the other day I bought ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness which Ive just started read.’

Below are some works that inspire Tom: Sarah Nedovic, Lydia Harwick, and Marcelo Velho.

Tom’s work is light and care-free, but the deep tones and out there compositions are anything but twee, he bridges a gap between utopian and dramatic. This relaxed approach lends itself perfectly to studios such as slowdown and other brands that bring a modern paradisal touch to life.