108. Tom: Midlife Creativity- What if?

Tommatousek.com

Midlife Creativity | Short Documentary

Tom's Art on Facebook

There is an "unwritten rule" that when you reach a certain age you are destined to experience a 'mid-life crises'. A mid-life crises is the expectation of an identity and purpose predicament. It's during this time that people often loose any motivation or inspiration to create and make any significant difference for Christ and His greater glory. But there are some who simply rebel against this "norm" and seek for more no matter their age or stage of life. In this episode, you will hear Tom's story of a seed of artistic creativity planted in Him by the living God. As he grew up, he often dismissed this gift until his wife Kris empowered him to go for it. Tom asked, 'what if,' which he had no idea what and where this would take him. Turns out, it has and continues to be more than what he could ever think or imagine. 

Transcript

Jack: [00:00:00] Jesus in My Life, Episode 108. 

Tom: Right after that, I was out in my front yard and just had an epiphany and it was a visual that I had being on my deathbed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what life would have looked like if I had given an effort. You know, bills are paid, kids are grown. You had a whole life, man, and you didn't even give it an effort, you know, but what did the effort have to look like?

Jack: Welcome to Jesus in my life, a podcast with Robin Jack, we interview everyday people, me and you about their extraordinary experiences with our savior, Jesus Christ. 

Rob: Welcome to another episode of Jesus in my life. My name is Rob, your 

Jack: host and my cohost, Jack. Hey everybody. Great to be here. 

Rob: Well, Jack, so excited.

And God brings people in front of us for anybody to share their story of God and their life and what God has done [00:01:00] and. Is doing and will continue to do. It's always a win for us to have this opportunity for people to share their story. Today is no different. We're so excited to introduce, uh, Tom and his wife, Kris.

Um, I met Tom and Kris at a recent art show that our church sponsored. And, uh, got to talking one thing leads to another. And I said to them, I've got to have you guys on our podcast. And so that's sort of the, the abbreviated version of how we met. And now here we are today, Tom and Kris, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having us. 

Jack: Yeah. Well, it's really good to have you on the show today. Thanks, Tom. We're going to focus in on your story today. Kris, you're going to be part of that because there's no way you're not right. Married. How long have you guys been married? 

Kris: Almost 30 years, 30 

Jack: years.

Yeah, your stories are intermingled. That's right. But we're going to start with you, Tom. Tom, can you give us a little bit of a background of where you came from? And [00:02:00] what role did God play in your life? Yeah. 

Tom: So I'm from Cleveland originally. When I was young, my father said, what do you want to be? When you grow up, said, I want to be an artist said, you can't be an artist.

It's too competitive. You're never, never make it, but I'll back up. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic grade school, altar boy. We were pretty involved with the church. My brothers and sisters led worship. Um, yeah, but I kind of, Fell away from that eventually would go to church, but then through high school, gradually fell a little bit more and more away.

By the time I started college, you know, I wasn't really going to go into church anymore and was partying a lot. 

Jack: Looking back, can you trace the reason why you think you may have gravitated away? I also was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school from K to 12. And so I, [00:03:00] Did have a strong sense of God, the reality of God, but didn't have a relationship.

And I think that's partially the reason I drifted away, but I'd love to hear if you've been able to identify why. 

Tom: I think it was, uh, probably just that I was a young man. Okay. Right. You know, and just lost interest. I still prayed, you know, there were definitely times. Where I was on my hands and knees praying for hours at a time, you know, I didn't lose my faith in God.

I didn't really go to Jesus. I didn't really go to God through Jesus so much. I guess I didn't really understand that as much as I do. And the importance of that now. So the partying started again. My dad said, you can't be an artist. You'll never make it. It's too competitive. Be an engineer, make your 30 and be happy with that.

Kris: When he was six, he knew he wanted to be an artist. [00:04:00] Yeah, 

Tom: I was always the one, you know, family get togethers. I'm tucked away in a corner, just drawing pictures, just draw, draw. I didn't understand why my buddies didn't want to, you know, why they didn't want to draw all the time, you know, but it was art, so I didn't pursue it, but I didn't really have an interest in anything else.

So that's where probably the partying started. You know, I went to college. I went to Kent for two years. Two years, sort of, you know, off and on flew off a lot of classes. I can relate. Yeah. And I was into skateboarding and about that time, you know, being in Cleveland. I mean, I hated it. I hated that weather, you know?

So it was one of those, if you can't beat it, you may as well join it. So I bought a, bought a snowboard and started, started riding in the mid late eighties and fell in love with that. So I moved to Colorado to ride and I ended up working in snowboard shops there. And that I was very passionate about it.

I love [00:05:00] that environment. I love being a part of that culture. They were definitely parts of the culture, which weren't necessarily healthy, but at the same time was pretty harmless. I made some really great lifelong friends through that process. In fact, I'll share this with you. This is so cool. Earlier this year, a buddy of mine that.

That I used to hang out with a lot. We were hired on the same day. We were still good friends, but he texted me at the beginning of this year. He's like, Hey, um, I stopped, uh, stopped drinking and stopped smoking weed. And, and, and I'm like, really? No kidding. What's up? He's like, yeah, I'm, uh, I'm following Christ now.

Yeah. Right. And, uh, and I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. I said, you, Russ. And, He didn't know that I was a believer and that I have been for for many years and so he had no idea So now he [00:06:00] lit up. He's got all these questions for me, you know at the beginning But now he's on fire and he's he's watching our church online every Sunday Yeah, it's just it's great.

So you just never know but Back to that. Where was I? Uh, snowboarding. Well, you 

Jack: joined. Yeah. You, you were snowboarding. You got in that industry interest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so 

Kris: did, and he did a lot of art in snowboarding. I he did graphics for snowboards. He would just give it away. 

Jack: Did you kind of like, like, you know how they have like skateboards, there's designs on the board.

Yeah. Is that kind of Yeah, I did a few of those. Oh, that's 

Tom: awesome. You know, our shop put out some, they'd given 

Kris: like a free snowboard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's amazing Drawings. It 

Tom: was cool. And what was really cool is never summer. Is that a Denver and my favorite snowboards there? I mean, in my opinion, the best boards on the planet.

And I got to do a few graphics for them, t shirt designs. And what they would do is bring in, they would cut up the bases of their boards to test their epoxy, see how things were holding up. And then they'd bring me [00:07:00] those cut up boards to repair them. And it would give those boards, their B team riders. So it was a good relationship.

And I still. I love riding those boards more than anything. We're all on a Never Summer, so I guess I'm kind of off on a tangent there. Our son 

Kris: is too. We all have our Never Summer boards. Yeah. I love it. That's 

Tom: great. That's awesome. But, uh, but through that I met Kris. 

Kris: Because I got free passes to ride.

With him. The Hurlboards. Lots of schwag. No, that's not a lie. But it didn't hurt. 

Tom: Yeah. That's great. Yeah, so met Kris, she was a graduate student at CU for speech pathology, and let's see, we had our daughter, we got married, you know, we kind of did things backwards a little bit, right? It happens. Yeah. And we 

Kris: We had both kind of wandered away from Conrad.

Yeah, 

Tom: we, we both did. Right. When I was dating girls before I met Kris, right? I'm [00:08:00] living in this studio apartment. I don't have a car. I don't have a phone. I'm making like nine, 10 an hour, 

Kris: seven. It was, you know, I had 

Tom: very little, you're right. Dating. And I'm like, this is just, it got to this point where I was like, this is worthless.

And I was with as little as I had, I was still very content. And. I went to God. I was on my hands and knees. It was one of those deep prayers just saying, you know, Lord, thank you for all that I do have, you know, and I would much rather be alone than to make stupid sacrifices and try to make a relationship work out of out of nothing.

You know, I'm like, I, you know, I'm done. And, you know, stop seeing some of these girls and, and I prayed, I was like, God, this, this is my list. This is what's on my list. And if I don't have everything on this list, um, I yelled down, I'm not going to waste my time. And I swear within two weeks, Kris and I start hanging out.

[00:09:00] Nice. Right. And I'm like, This, this, all right, this is, uh, this is pretty crazy because I know that our listeners cannot see Kris, but she is, uh, beautiful and athletic and intelligent. You know, she was everything on that list. And that's kind of what scared me. I'm like, I know she's got half a Colorado wanting to date her and right.

Kris: But nobody was you though. Nobody was you. Well, thanks. You were cooler than everybody. But, 

Tom: but And you had snowboards. Yeah. We started hanging out and I knew that she was like next level and I knew who I was and I knew where she was at and I felt myself falling for her. We were snowboarding together. 

Kris: We were just friends at first, you were the only guy that didn't want to date me.

You just wanted to be my friend. And I was like, well, that [00:10:00] came about 

Tom: because when, when I felt myself. Having feelings for her 

Various: and it wasn't 

Tom: just physical attraction. It was like, man, that was one of those long prayers. I was on my knees for three hours. I can remember where the sun was on the wall coming through the window.

And by the time I was done with that pair of the sunlight coming through the window was behind me, you know, it was, it was a long prayer. God, what do I do? Falling for this person. And I don't think it's, it's, it's. a good, good thing. I didn't want to get hurt. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't want to get hurt.

And so, so it came clearly to me. She does not need someone else chasing after her. She needs a friend right now. Like, like she said, she had been through a divorce and she was alone in Colorado. She just needed a friend. And I'm like, all right, that's, that's as hard as that might be. I'm just going to focus on being her friend and being someone she can turn to.

Well, that he 

Kris: played hard to get, and that's what it turned out. It turned [00:11:00] out that I was playing hard to get. Why isn't he hitting on me? Yeah, I was like, does he want me to be here or not? So that's what made me start to pursue him a little bit. And also I couldn't call him. I'd have to just show up. 

Various: Oh yeah.

I didn't have a phone, 

Kris: right? Oh, he didn't have a car. He didn't have a checking account. All 

Jack: these things that you thought were playing against you were playing for you. A hundred percent. Oh my gosh. It was just like, randomly 

Kris: show up and we'd just like hang out. And so he was fun. 

Tom: My back door was always open and every day I'd get home from work, there'd be somebody else sitting on the couch waiting for me to get home and I cook dinner, you know, cause it's just a guys, we were just hanging out and I love to cook.

Even back then I'd make pot roast and fettuccine Alfredo and we would just eat and we'd party and we would. Play hacky sack out the front door. So they were a lot of good memories for sure. And like I said, I'm still good friends with many of those guys and that have really become incredibly successful.

I'm glad to say still friends [00:12:00] with the owners of the shops, my old bosses. Wow. Yeah. It's amazing. So we had our daughter. We started dating. We started dating. Yeah. And I, and I did never wanted to 

Kris: get married again. And he's like, I don't care if we get married. He's like, whatever. I'm like, I'm never getting married again.

We had our daughter. And then we were like, we need to get married, we need to find God, we need to go to church. Like it totally changed. So you would say 

Rob: that your daughter was a huge part of you guys hands back down to God. Absolutely. 

Tom: It was so important. You know, When we brought her home from the hospital, the first time there, Kris was in class and I was alone with her, our daughter.

And I got a tip. I would get a lot. People would give me weed as tips, you know, working in the shop. And someone had given me a nugget and I was like, I'm just going to take a little taste. And I did. And I'm looking down at my daughter on the couch and she's in class. And I'm like, this. [00:13:00] has got to stop now.

I'm like, done. This is way too big a responsibility, you know, and I just sat there staring at her going, I'm done. So that was that cold turkey stop. 

Kris: I think God saved us. Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. Cause I was working in a brewery, like they had the hundred beer tour and you get your beer passport and you can drink beers from around the world.

So I was drinking all the time. We were drinking every night probably. And as soon as I got pregnant and we were smoking just cigarettes and you were smoking pot. But as soon as I got pregnant. I could not be around any smoke. I could not drink alcohol. I just couldn't be a part of that. I don't know where we were headed, just living that lifestyle, but it completely changed us and we cleaned ourselves up and Not that we were big druggies, but we were just drinking and smoking, which is right.

We're shooting up or anything like [00:14:00] 

Various: that. Right. Right. 

Jack: Right. But you still recognize that. Yeah. Like this isn't the way that a child should be raised. And so like, I just love how God, God has this tendency to kind of get in the middle of our mess. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, I love you guys enough. I know.

You're going to come back to me at some point. You're my project still, and I'm going to give you guys a blessing. It's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance. I mean, your daughter was literally a blessing that caused you to turn away from the lifestyle that you needed to turn away from eventually anyways, you know?

Kris: And having a baby and having the incredible love that you get for that child. Sorry. So I cry all the time now, but just having that incredible love for that baby made me realize if I love this child so much, how much more does God love me? And I was like, I got to find God again. Wow. So we, 

Tom: so we started going to church.

Again, it was new [00:15:00] for me, the whole, you know, the difference between going to a Catholic service and a non denominational, evangelical Christian service, it took a little getting used to. 

Jack: When do I stand up? When do I kneel? What's going on? Why don't you do any of this stuff? Where's the altar boys? Where are 

Tom: the robes?

Where's the procession and the incense? You know, it took 

Kris: us a while to find a church that we felt like we belonged to. Could fit into. 

Tom: Yeah. Yes. And so with that, we had our daughter. I got a job out on the west coast just as Kris got her master's degree. I was at a trade show in Vegas and was offered a position with a sporting goods retail.

out on the West Coast to be their snowboard coordinator. So I got back from Vegas and I asked her, I was like, you want to move home? Cause they said I can have an office in Northern California. So she got right on a plane, flew out, interviewed with children's hospital in [00:16:00] Oakland, got a job. So we both had jobs.

We moved out, we were closer to her parents. Who are in Pleasanton. 

Kris: My mom could babysit our daughter. Who she loved. Right. 

Tom: Well, it worked out really well. So I started painting murals for our daughter when we got our first house. And Kris said, you need to start a business as a mural painter. I say, yeah, maybe someday I'll do that.

And she said, Well, I call the yellow pages. They're coming over tomorrow.

I had 

Kris: started my own practice doing speech therapy. I put myself in the yellow. This, we didn't have a computer. This was like 99, 2000. We were like the last people to get a computer, the last people to get the iPhone. And I put myself in the yellow pages. I was getting calls. I'm like, if I can do this, you can do this.

Tom: Kris, I'm, I'm always that procrastinator someday. And she's more that go get her. No, you just do it now. It'll fall in place. That's my wife. Yeah. Yeah, [00:17:00] for sure. A lot 

Jack: of us men do. 

Tom: Yeah. And day one, Yellow Pages came out and I got a call and I was so excited to think, wow, I'm getting 300 to paint Winnie the Pooh on somebody's wall, you know, but I didn't have a portfolio.

I didn't go to school for art. So what I would do in the beginning was by sheet rock because it's so, so cheap and paint samples for people say, I could do this if this is what you want. You know, they would say, can you paint a dragon on my wall? 

Kris: And you would, we put them right when you walked into our house.

Cause I saw clients out of our kitchen and they'd walk right by. Yeah. And her clients 

Tom: would then be like, Oh yeah. Can you pay for us? 

Jack: Awesome. Cross advertising right there. Business manager, right. So 

Kris: thank you, Suzanne Mooney. A bunch of our, my clients hired him. 

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. So did, did the mural thing. It's backbreaking and challenging, but it did lead to some pretty [00:18:00] cool jobs.

I had the opportunity to paint the all star game logo on the centerfield wall for the giants back in 07, which was surreal. I just remember being up on the boom, painting up there and the players are out there playing catch. I forget what they'd call me. Painter man or something like that, man. You know, and, uh, it was pretty cool.

Pretty cool to do that. And then when the All Star game was done, though, I got called in to paint the wall brick because they don't sandblast the logo off the wall. They had me come in and And paint over it to look like brick, which was pretty neat. I still boast about it. You know, Kris will tell you when we're watching a game.

Yeah. Look at that right there. That's not really, that's painted to look like 

Jack: that's the same weird paint job. It's still the one that I think so. As 

Tom: far as I know, I don't think they've done anything there since. And then, and then in right field years ago, they built. Kind of an executive loge out there there.

You could rent this special place and you have a bar [00:19:00] and it was supposed to be sponsored by Dockers and approved through everyone except for McGowan, who was in charge at the time that brick facade was painted Dockers tan. It was going to have the Dockers logo. Well, McGowan woke up, looked out his window and saw that and.

The story goes anyway that he threw a fit he's like nobody messes with my brick facade turn it back to brick right now Tom need you out here right away So that that wall is painted painted brick, too Yeah, Ford bold moves over the centerfield wall at one time. Yeah, so so there were some pretty cool experiences as a mural painter but but the big thing really was In 08, when my friend who is a pastor was going for his doctorate of divinity and did his thesis on art as a form of worship.

And he asked me to do a painting for a sermon. He had, he, he [00:20:00] focused on poetry, spoken word, music, performance. And then some visual art, but I turned to Kris, I said, what should I paint? I'm used to painting walls. I'm not, I don't paint canvases. And she said, why don't you do an abstract? So, all right. So my buddy, my pastor, Jeff Reed, amazing, amazing man, amazing poet, amazing pastors, definitely anointed.

I took one of his poems and did an abstract interpretation. of that poem. And so I needed to explain the painting to him before he could, you know, prepare for his sermon. So on a prior Sunday, I let church leave. Everybody exited and I went out to the truck and brought it in, set it on the ground. We sat down to talk about it and talk about the images in the painting.

Kris was standing maybe 10, 15 feet behind me. And an older woman was standing next to her and Kris turned to her and said, do you have an interest in art? And she said, I've got multiple degrees in art. [00:21:00] I'm a retired teacher. She said, I can tell you that a hundred people would have tried this painting and not come close to pulling it off, but he's pulled it off.

I don't know him or what he does, but I can tell you this is what he is supposed to be doing. And so, so. Um, 

Kris: that confirmed it, 

Tom: that, that, that really did confirm that, that I'm supposed to be an artist. Right. 

Jack: And I'm assuming that was important for you because you had the other important voice in your life from when you were young, when your dad said that you shouldn't be an artist.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Tom: So it's one thing when you get your family and friends that tell you, you can and that you should. Yeah. But to get that unsolicited affirmation from someone that knows art, you know, it was like, Hmm. Maybe I, maybe this is the time I should listen. How many times we say someday, someday I'm going to learn to play the guitar or the piano someday, someday.

I was like, all right, well, I wondered then if I could take these shapes and make a recognizable face. [00:22:00] So my musical hero is Dave Brubeck. And I started there. So I, I did an experiment and it worked. It was crude, but it worked. And. Right after that, I was out in my front yard and just had an epiphany, so to speak.

And it was a visual that I had of being on my deathbed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what life would have looked like if I had given an effort. You know, bills are paid, kids are grown, you had a whole life, man, and you didn't even give it an effort. You know, but what did the effort have to look like?

You know, so I really, you know, Like the little drummer boy, you know, just looked up to God and I said, God, thank you for the gift. I know you gave me a gift and I'm going to commit to this. I don't know what it looks like. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I want to commit it to you. And I just asked that you use it for your glory and help me to pay the bills with it.

You know, someday we'll see. So yeah, like the little drummer boy. [00:23:00] It's my gift for you. You use it how you feel it necessary. So I committed, I knew it couldn't be one of those things where I'm going to go at it a little at a time and only paint. When I felt inspired, I needed to really put in the effort, look at myself in the mirror at the end of every day and say, did you give it your all or are you making excuses?

Are you BS in yourself? You know? So. I, I had to paint at every moment that I could, you had to find time to paint cause I still had my regular job. So that time was in the evenings and four in the morning, I'd get up the, the, the alarm would go off and I'd be like, I don't want to get up. But I would then ask myself, how bad do you want it?

And say, I want it, I want it, you know, so I get out of bed, get that first step out and go to the kitchen and make my coffee. And by that, that was about enough time where I would, I was pretty much wide awake at [00:24:00] that time. Have my coffee, sit down and start painting. It became incredibly spiritual time for me.

It was quiet, it was dark out. And. I did a lot of praying, you know, over a lot of those early paintings and I started to think to myself, I might be onto something. What if, what if something really happens with this? This is, you know, it might not be that far fetched, but I never wanted to get caught up.

Yeah. And it being about me, you know, I, I want to make sure that I kept the focus on God and honoring him. So I started to burn a candle. 

Rob: Yeah. Tom, without getting ahead of the story during that process, I think there's something there that maybe even for our listeners, this could be like speaking right to them as you're processing through that.

What if this is something that, that God wants me to do and then it could actually take off. What was there any like, uh, maybe not. Was there any doubts during that process? [00:25:00] Cause I'm always interested when you see God do things, when he uses you that you like more than what you can even think or imagine.

There is that epiphany. There is that transition that happens where doubt, yeah, but it's not doubt driving the car. It's actually faith. And so I'm just curious, was there any, like, Oh, maybe not. Oh yeah. We should do it. No. Maybe not. Was there, was that going on? 

Tom: I don't think that there was any doubt.

Interesting. You know, what I felt was hope. I felt I had some direction and focus for like the first time in my life. Yeah. I finally was living with a purpose, whether it was going to be a financial success or not. It wasn't so much. What I was thinking about, I guess back then I was hopeful that it would lead to things one day.

But again, I, I had never had so much purpose. 

Rob: Well, I'd imagine that you had Kris as your cheerleader, of course, from [00:26:00] my 

Tom: gosh, yes. She was the one saying, you have to do this. You have to do this. So support. What took you so long? Yeah. 

Kris: Get going. Wow. 

Tom: Yeah. Cause 

Kris: I could see it. I mean, I saw it. Yeah. Yeah. He would, when we were dating, and no phone again, he would ride his bike over or walk over, I don't know, sometimes you'd get a ride, I don't know how you'd get to where I'd work, he'd write me notes and leave them on the windshield of my car, and he had the most beautiful handwriting, because he used to work for an architect.

Various: Yeah. 

Kris: Like he should have been an architect actually, because that's his paintings are so architectural. But I could see something in him that no one else had. There was something special about him. I always call him a diamond in the rough. And I was like, why has no one else seen this in him? I'm sure other people did, maybe did that.

Tom: There were so many. I'm kidding. I don't just mean all 

Kris: the girls you did, but I'm just saying like, I could see it in him. I, he would [00:27:00] draw pictures for me. He would like draw how he wanted to design our house or our backyard. And I just loved his drawings. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I fell in love with his handwriting and his drawings, I guess.

Wow. I don't know. Yeah. But he, but he's just got a brilliant mind. I always say he's a genius. He's kind of an idiot, but also a genius like the nutty professor, like so smart, but like doesn't see obvious things that I see, but that's why we're together. We balance each other, but he's so brilliant. And I was like, 

Tom: well, thanks for that.

Kris: Yeah. You need to pursue this cause you definitely have it. 

Tom: Well, I really did start to believe that I could be onto something and again, didn't want to lose focus on God. And I thought, well, what if this does blossom into something? So I started burning a candle next to me as a reminder, you know, silent, but visual and present to me.

So every time I'd look down at my palette and my paint, I'd see the candle and [00:28:00] just remember to stay focused. This is about him. It's not about me. And I still, to this day, break out an electric candle. Um, it's a little lantern that I turn on at least a couple times a week. Just remember it's not about me because by this time my name's sort of getting out there a little bit.

You know, at that time when I started painting, Facebook had first started and I started posting everything that I was working on online and through that a senior vice president of a large corporation saw my work. And I was invited to be the artist in residence for this company that manages all the properties for Target, Kohl's, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Chipotle.

Bed Bath Beyond. It was huge, you know, and they sent me around the country to create community art projects based on the way that I paint. It was, it was heck of an honor. And they sent me to [00:29:00] Art Basel in Miami. It's the largest art show in the world. It's happens in three different locations every year internationally.

But anyway, I was featured at the world's largest chalk festival in Pasadena. We met a young gal there. She was an artist, but she was also the server at the restaurant that we would, we would go to while we were there. We didn't really think much about it. Kris, Kris is the one that connects with everybody and gives out, you know, emails and we got to stay in touch, you know, let's stay in touch.

Well, the residency ended with this corporation after a year. And there I was in my dining room and praying. God, that was awesome. But how in the heck are you going to top that? Are you going to top that? And, 

Jack: uh, he's probably last when you said that, right? Oh, I got a feeling, [00:30:00] you know, I didn't know what I was asking really, 

Tom: because I swear within two weeks I get an email from this gal that we had met and she said, you know, I never mentioned I'm an intern with the Ryman arts foundation and we are going to be having a fundraiser.

I'm wondering if you'd want to participate. We would take half of whatever. You know, something sells for, you know, four grand. We take two grand, that type of thing. So I saw the email and I look up Ryman arts foundation. I turned to Kris. I'm like, Holy cow. This is sort of a Disney thing. You know, Herb Ryman did the original drawings of Disneyland for Walt so that he could get the loans to build Disneyland.

Kris: He's 

Tom: Ryman was just. Big deal, big deal. And I'm like, absolutely. I'll participate in that. So the event was at the home of Marty Sklar, who was the original CEO of Imagineering, he was Walt's right hand man. And I didn't even know this. Yeah, I didn't [00:31:00] look that far in advance. So I'm there in his house in the Hollywood Hills looking at him.

I'm like, Kris, this guy must be somebody with Disney. He's got his office full of. Disney memorabilia and it's roped off and I'm like, dang, I had no idea where I was or who I was meeting. And as I'm standing at my wall of art, that intern was standing with a smaller woman and she's pointing down at her, looking at me from a distance saying, she wants to meet you.

I said, bring her over. You know, so she introduced us and, um, Um, we got to talking, she loved my work and really, really, uh, we, we hit it off. She really liked me and my family. We were all there. The, you know, Kris and the kids were both there. By now we have got a second child, our son, Kellen, who is, uh, 

Kris: he was nine.

He's 

Tom: a sophomore now at Jessup U. [00:32:00] Um, so we get to talking and within an hour of conversation, it came up that. Kris asked me what I wanted to do for my 50th birthday. And I told her I wanted to go to Disneyland. And this woman says, Oh, have you ever been to club 33? I said, no, just a walk into club 33, right?

It's one of the most. Elite clubs in the world. You know, it's, it's in, it's impossible to go. And she said, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to make this the most special birthday of your life. I'm going to give you and your family four, three day park hopper passes. Two of those days are going to have to wait.

Private guide, so you'll have frontal line privileges. Oh my God, I'm so jealous right now. I know, right? It was, I ruined, I can never go back to Disney after. I mean, it was amazing. I'll never forget going onto the Matterhorn. Right. And we would get there and there's the line, you know, the line goes around the mountain.

Yeah. And we'd enter through the [00:33:00] exit with our tour guide. Right. And so we, we go in, we get right on, we ride the thing, we get off and our son says, I wanna do it again. And the guide says, you wanna do it again? Yeah, the people have not moved in line and they're watching us go through the exit again and getting right back on it.

Oh my gosh. I was kind of shielding my face in embarrassment, but she 

Jack: said, and, uh, 

Tom: and I'm going to take you to club 33 for your birthday. So we're on this trip and We were in line for Soaring Over California and she says, Oh, I don't know why I didn't think about this sooner. I know just who needs to see your work.

Uh, CEO of Disney fine art, the official publisher of fine art for Disney. And I said, yes, he does need to see my art. And so she said, we have to do it the right way. She said, [00:34:00] I'll, I'll make an arrangement to meet with him and I'll show him your work. And if he likes it, he'll call you. And if he doesn't like it, he won't call you.

I was like, all right. So we had a friend who's a realtor and she would have me, Sometimes paint houses that she was trying to flip. So there I was at this house, rolling paint on some walls, schlepping away, and I see the phone ring and I'm like, Los Angeles? Wow, it's just probably that guy from Disney, right?

Yeah, hello, it's Tom. He's like, yeah, it's just that guy from Disney. I was like, what? 

Kris: So that was December, this is May. So you like, Five months later, you're like waiting and waiting and 

Tom: wondering if anything's ever going to happen. He said, yeah, I saw your work and we'd love to meet with you. And this was on a Monday.

I said, I can be there Friday if that he's like Friday will work. So we drove down and they gave us a big tour of the place, their, their facility. And, uh, we met with, [00:35:00] with pretty much the staff, you know, the global sales manager, the CFO and. The master printer and co CEO of the company and sat around a table, you know, after four and a half hours of touring and talking and seeing the whole process.

We were sitting around the conference table eating, I don't know, maybe in and out or something habit. It was habit burgers. And I said, so, so now what do we do? They said, now you go back to doing what you do every day and 

Kris: keep painting 

Tom: that and just keep painting. And we'll talk about you and we'll let you know.

What we decide. I'm like, that's it. You know, I was, I was hoping to sign a contract or something like that. 

Kris: I think it was a year later that they gave you a contract. It was 

Tom: nine months. So, so, um, yeah, I'm waiting, right. And I'm, and I'm painting these Disney paintings and sending them pictures and they're like, yeah, it looks great.

It looks great. And so I'm getting more and more frustrated. [00:36:00] And I, and I can remember lying in bed. Praying, you know, God, and I swear my prayers, I was surprised that the household wouldn't couldn't hear my prayers because I was almost screaming at him. What the heck? Why aren't you answering this? Please make something happen.

And then eventually though, I did get, get a call. We're going to launch yet. Oh, we 

Kris: were losing the house at the time. We were in the middle of like losing our house. That's why you were frustrated. Cause we lost our house. Oh, there too. Yeah. And then there's that. Yeah. That's a side note. We were doing like a whole modification loan.

They took advantage of us. We lost our house. Yeah. 

Tom: That's another story. But that's okay. That's for another podcast. 

Kris: No, no, no. That's why you were frustrated. Yeah. It was, there was a lot of 

Tom: frustration at that time. But he answered. And so now, so now that's what I get to do. So I still do my non Disney stuff too.

My reputation was built as a portrait painter. Using these [00:37:00] shapes. 

Kris: He's in a gallery in Hawaii and a gallery in Carmel. 

Tom: Yeah, for that stuff. But Disney takes up most 

Kris: of his time. 

Tom: It does, but they do an amazing job of promoting me. 

Kris: It's making a name for him as an artist. That's why Disney's been so good for him.

And you're blowing up on YouTube right now. 

Tom: Yeah, the, the story. Was documented, a short documentary was made five and a half minutes. I would encourage anybody to check it out. 

Jack: Yeah, we'll put a link to that YouTube video in our show notes. Oh, that would be great. 

Kris: It's called Midlife Creativity Midlife. I love it.

That's great. It midlife blown up in two, two 

Tom: months. It's over a hundred thousand views and the comments are coming from. Internationally, all the encouragement that people are getting out of it. One guy even picked up on my dry erase board. I'm like, he could see that I had first Peter four, 10, 11, you know, But using your gifts, you know, whatever you're called to do, if you're called to serve, serve [00:38:00] in the name of God, you know, and I don't have the whole thing memorized.

I'm not a pastor. I'm not one of those guys that memorize things very well, but I do turn to it. But you know 

Jack: it in your heart. But I know it in 

Tom: my heart that we are supposed to use what we were given 

Rob: for his glory. Well, in the light of Jesus shines through you, brother. Such an encouragement. For me personally, and I know for you, Jack.

Oh, absolutely. I feel like this is 

Jack: the middle of my life right now. And that's exactly why I'm like leaning over to you. Midlife, like repositioning. Yeah. There's new life even in the middle of our life. Yeah, right if we listen and obey to whatever Jesus is calling us to do Even when it's I'm sure it was scary you had I mean we barely touched on the fact that you were potentially using your house You're a dad.

You have two kids. Yeah, you have that weight of responsibility of these Two lives that you're responsible for and you're taking this risky move to go into art where you have the, you know, man, yeah, right. Like you, you old cartoons had the [00:39:00] little angel on the devil on the shoulders. I was like, what are you doing?

Going for art? Yeah. You know? Oh no, God gave you this gift. Go do it. Well, but it's not going to make you any money. I mean, maybe I'm inferring here, but I imagine that was what was going in your mind. I am not 

Tom: even kidding. I've had the idea of. But painting do taking a photograph of me and painting Sylvester, the cat, I need shoulder because there was that one episode where he's an angel and a devil, you know, you 

Kris: suck.

Tom: And 

Kris: he does that, he goes, I see this all the time and it can happen in a day. He'll go from high, high, high, like I'm a genius. Look what I can do. Oh, 

Tom: come on. 

Kris: So low. Like, what am I even doing with my life? And I'm like, are you kidding me? Yeah. Yeah. That's so, I think that's what I'm there for to help pull him back up and make him realize that you were pretty good, 

Tom: but 

Jack: that's not alone to artists, right?

Like all of us feel that. I mean, as a, as a podcast [00:40:00] creator, I'm like. Oh, this was such a good episode. I did such a good job editing and it turned out so well. And then other episodes, I'm like, I suck. I should quit. You know? And 

Rob: then I'm there saying, no, we can do this. Let's do this. You got it. Yeah, you got this.

I was going to go back just a little bit. And I leaned over to Jack when you were sharing the part of that nine months of waiting to I'm sure you've thought about this, but that nine months was a sort of a birthing process that that was taking place. And a vision was birthed as you've shared in your story that the highs and the lows and the lows and the highs and all the things that go with that God in the background, but then coming to partnership with your heart and your desire to glorify him in in your life.

In all of it, there was a nine month process that needed to take place. And so here we are. I never even thought about that nine month birthing. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's beautiful because I just think about what Psalm 139 talks about [00:41:00] that, that even before you were in your mother's womb, God had already written your story and Such an encouragement.

You don't even know, like just hearing your story, um, because I, I look at my own life and in a good way, you know, you've encouraged me and challenged me to go further, to not settle because I do want to glorify God in all that I do. I want to be used in greater ways for the kingdom. And so thank you first and foremost.

But second, I have to imagine that there's somebody who's listening. who's sort of on the precipice, you know, like, yeah, one foot in, one foot out, you know, kind of got the toe dipped in. But, uh, and, and if that's you, by the way, if you're listening, if you don't know Christ, today is the day for your salvation.

Give him your heart, give him your life. And I'm telling you, the [00:42:00] best is yet to come. But speak to that person who has been, you know, Kind of like you, you know, just, I want to do this. I don't want it to be about me, but I want to, I want it to be in partnership with the living God. Yeah. Encourage that person.

If you don't mind. I would say that first 

Tom: trust God's 

Various: timing. 

Tom: It is perfect. We live in a society where we want instant gratification and we see others with so much. And so I would say. Trust his timing. Trust his plan for you. And that's probably the easy part for me to say. Right? Where the hard part would be, it's not to compare yourself to anyone.

Don't compare your failures. Don't compare your successes. Don't compare your talents. Don't compare what they have and what you don't have. You and God, right? That's that, that, that'll, I get [00:43:00] asked all the time when I'm at events, what advice I have for the young up and coming artist, what should they focus on?

Like, if you want a big yacht and a big house and a big car, and you want this and that do not pursue art as a career. You're probably not going to. Have that. But I know a lot of people that do have all that really cool stuff and they can't stand the idea of setting foot in their office one more day.

They're miserable for 10 to 12 hours a day so they can have those things. And I'll say this, you know, Kris is such an encouragement and I, I can't do this without her, but we don't have the big house. Our house is a thousand square feet or cars are old, but 

Kris: you know, we got 

Tom: this nice big backyard. And we have the things that we love.

You know, it's not for everybody. We're close to the mountains. We've been snowboarding together for 30 30 some years and we love to [00:44:00] kayak. We live two miles from the American River. We go out often. You know, I love to golf. We can golf. We got, we have everything right around us. I don't, I'm not big on travel, so my point is to just really focus on what's important.

You know, I get to wake up and walk the dog, have coffee and paint Mickey Mouse, you know, I don't have to drive. He's doing 

Kris: what he would be doing in retirement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's basically he, I'm 

Tom: basically retired. I still need to make money, for sure. But, um, that would be a big part of the encouragement and be willing to.

Ignore the sacrifices that, that you have to make in that pursuit. You know, Kris wants me to have a six pack and for many years, but that would involve giving up, um, you know, cheeseburgers and pizza, it would involve exercising a bunch of stuff that I really have a hard time sacrificing, you know, but, but with the art.

But, [00:45:00] you know, as a career, yeah, that's, I love, I love what I get to do, you know, so I'm, I, you know, that's, I don't know, does that do, do you think that helps? Do you? 

Jack: Yeah, I think it does. I think sometimes we adopt the dream that we think we should have because that's what society's told us. You're saying go for the thing that truly satisfies your soul.

That's it. I mean, that's Jesus and what he's gifted you to do. That's 

Kris: what my dad always told me. I have to credit. 

Tom: Oh, yeah, he had a, 

Kris: he always said he wanted me to be a business major in college and I hated it, but I did it and I almost got the business minor, but I couldn't take the last class. I took six classes.

I needed to take seven to get a minor in business. I switched majors. I'm like, I can't do this. This is not what I want to do with my life. And he always said to me, do what you love. Don't worry about the money. Do what you love. The money will come. He would always say that to me. And I'm like, well, I love people.

I love [00:46:00] communication. I love connecting with people. And when I learned about stuttering and doing stuttering therapy, like that, that's my passion that I was like, that's what I'm going to do. That's what I was designed to do to, to build people up and to encourage them that even if you stutter, it doesn't matter because you have something important to say.

It's not how you. Say it, it's what you say and you're valuable even if you have some stuttering when you say it. And so I love doing stuttering therapy and I do all speech and language therapy, but stuttering is my favorite. And I'm so glad he said that because I pursued getting my master's in speech pathology and I love what I do.

I don't make a ton of money, but I make enough money to live on and I love it. 

Tom: Um, in working for ourselves and we love to garden. Kris loves her chickens. We sit out in the backyard with a glass of wine and the chickens, we're in heaven. Yeah. That's our favorite thing to do. We don't eat much more than that.

Not every night. I love cooking. Not every [00:47:00] night. Just on weekends. It's alright. Yeah. It's awesome. It's great. But I'll say this though that, you know, my pastor early on when I was talking with him and I asked, I said, you know, Jeff, my, my prayer is. God use me for your glory What does that look like? I don't I have no no idea what I'm doing.

He said don't force anything Just keep your eyes open He said it's not your job to save anybody only God can do that He said but it is your job to say what you have seen and so That is something that's very important to me. What I find is incredible is that when I'm at events like the Festival of the Arts, say, at Epcot, every year for two weeks, and I get people asking me, How did you get started?

How did you become a Disney artist? How did you become an artist? Well, that's very interesting that you would ask that. My buddy is a pastor. And he asked me, my art was born in the church. You know, the very [00:48:00] first painting that I ever did was for a sermon. You know, so there's an amazing how God works like that.

He gave me that, that in. You know, and that can read into people. And even this last weekend, And being at the state fair, you know, it comes up and I see people with their heads nodding in the background going, yeah, tell it, you know, they're like right on brother. Yeah. It's cool. But I had a pop up gallery in Lafayette.

For a month took over a retail space 

Kris: and Jeff came in you and he prayed and so Jeff 

Tom: came in He said, you know for the next month. This is your church and So we prayed over it and he anointed the threshold Holy oil. And I would one night I was there just painting by myself. It may have been seven o'clock in the evening and getting dark out.

And this woman came walking in, she set foot in and started looking around and she shook her head. This is really interesting. And she started opening [00:49:00] up like crazy and she caught herself and she's like, this is, this is weird. And she stood on the threshold and she walked outside, she's like, took a step outside.

She took a step inside, outside, inside. And she started, I was like, you go ahead, you can, I'm here if you want to need to get something off your chest, you, it's fine. You can tell me. It's fine. She's and she started opening up again, and then she takes a step outside again back in. She's like there's something weird in this Just something just something strange and she stepped outside and yeah Yeah, 

Kris: yeah, it's crazy crazy 

Tom: cool stuff 

Jack: I love it And I love what your pastor said that your job is not to save people but to tell this your story Tell what you've seen what you witnessed.

That's the call That we all have on our lives is to be a witness [00:50:00] and a witness tells their story and you did that today Yeah, you did that today. You shared your story and that's what the heart and soul of our podcast is right is to simply share what god has done in your life in your in your life God has done some beautiful beautiful art Miracles people's lives and touched your life and and I love it.

It's inspirational. I 

Tom: appreciate it. Yeah, i've seen enough It's now that I can You Say what's next? Bring it. I know something cool is, you know, right up around the corner. Yeah I have no idea what's coming, but I can trust it. 

Jack: I say often if your christianity is boring You're not doing it the right way.

Yeah, right. God has an adventure for us. That's right paul Anything but a boring life, right? Yeah, exactly. It was nothing boring there It was exciting. Um, and I think sometimes we just need to say okay god You Tell me what to do and I'll follow. All right, and that's that we want to hold on to our lives and be like We want to be [00:51:00] sheltered.

We want to be safe And that's not a bad Thing but it robs you from the adventure. God wants you on. Yeah, jesus didn't play it safe. He did not at all All right So thank you so much for coming on the show today both tom and Kris I'm humbled. 

Tom: Yeah, appreciate it. Beautiful. Yeah. Thank you. Look at great being here.

Yeah 

Jack: Well, it's inspired me. 

Tom: I'm glad that's what I hope. 

Jack: Everybody else. Stay tuned every Tuesday for new episodes. God bless.