reviews_and_ramblings | Thom Bierdz (born March 25, 1962)

Thom Bierdz is the artist who will "borrow" his work to be dispalyed in Sticke Figures (a project of Matthew Montgomery).

I asked Thom if he would like to share a bit of him and his work with us, and I found a very kind but maybe shy man. Strange if you think that he is also an actor, but maybe this makes him an even more interesting person, someone I'm glad to have the chance to discover.

1) Your website says: Thom Bierdz, Actor, Artist & Author. Do you feel to be more of one of those three souls?

I am a quiet guy - my personality is really suited to be alone and create - as a painter.

2) Do you want to tell us something more on your role as Philip Cancellor III in "The Young and the Restless"?

Last year I made history by being the first out-gay actor hired on daytime for a contract role! I received a poignant HRC award.

3) You defined "Forgiving Troy" a VERY personal book. It's enough to read the blurb to understand that for sure it's, but do you care to tell something more about it and the experience to write it?

On this 3 minute clip (taped last month) from CBS news I talk about my book:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/video/21928920/index.html

Taking the Leap

4) Looking at your Gallery, you have a very different and various portfolio. What is your background as artist?

Self-taught trial and error

5) You said that in the last 5 year, art made your living: what is the main common output for your artworks?

I have being doing a lot of personal commissions - a lot of family and dog portraits.

6) Your artworks will be protagonist in the Matthew Montgomery's movie, Sticke Figures; I suppose they will be the "paintings" of the main character, that is an artist. How did you come to this project?

My ex, best guy in the world, is Matt's boyfriend now.

7) Is it your first time on the screen not as actor?

My art has been on several tv show sets.

“2005 Emerging Artist of the Year, Los Angeles” What emerges from his personal journey onto the canvas is at times heartbreaking, haunting and profoundly affecting. Thom’s body of work ultimately proves to be an uplifting and inspiring experience of transcendence, a compelling testimony on the resilience of the human spirit.

Contradictory strategies for painting has quickly become Bierdz’s hallmark. Although he uses the same touch throughout, it can at times appear to be a number of different voices, even personalities. The reluctance to lay claim to a fixed position might at one time have been attributed to youth but it is clearly now an integral aspect of Bierdz methodology. Nothing is by chance. Even when the form appears to be a sort of free association, that’s really his expertise in terms of handling paint. The process is at times extremely rigorous and other times purely subconscious.

His paintings prove cunningly hard to pin down. One painting might be purely decorative abstraction; another an architectural interior or a figurative work. A single landscape might contain the following; asymmetrical branches that engulf a whimsical cabin, naïve animals that refer to Henri Rousseau’s paintings, atmospheric washes that evoke Rothko’s use of vivid color and bold strokes of shapes that seem to pay homage to Matisse. Whether it is a yellow-green wash over a woman in a chair or the mystical atmosphere of a moonlit landscape or storybook houses, it is a lyrical arrangement of elements that flips between symbolism, impressionism and abstract patterning. Bierdz is masterful at establishing tension between the decorative mark and recognizable imagery.

In the end, the artist allows the work to speak for itself. The very thing that takes our breath away, his diversity, his range, this combination of charm and sometimes harsh reality, are the same avenues we all walk. He holds a sort of universal mirror, as if to dare us to look at ourselves, and with a bold conviction and honesty, embrace all of who we are.

http://www.thombierdz.com/