We’re looking forward to introducing you to Michael Toombs. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Michael, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I work 5-6 days a week and usually start around 6:30 a.m. I drink 12 oz. of water and then make a pot of organic coffee. Sitting with my coffee, I read through the issues of the day for about an hour. I try to internalize as much information and identify truth from lies. I then study the art I am involved with currently to determine the approach I will utilize and decide how to interpret portions of the message of the painting. I decide how much and what portion of the painting I will work on each day. It usually takes a month and a half to complete a painting. I work from 3 1/2 to 4 hours a day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
2. Introduction to your Brand:
As a young school boy, I remember I felt I had something to share with humanity with my art. My message was more straightforward less complicated. Spirituality was always in my mind and heart along with optimism and a little bit of the unknown. As I moved on to my adulthood, I realized that within my community, there was very little support for an African American artist who also leaned toward the surreal. Being on my own, I had to make a living and had to repackage my approach to sharing my message. Using many of the same creative elements and with the help of other creatives, we developed an art form named Interactive Arts Education. For 25 years this served me and the community well. I was able to provide a healing service to schools, Juvenile Detention Centers, Adult Addiction programs, Housing Developments, etc. I worked with the Department of Education, City Government, (Mayors, Police Chiefs, FBI, County Prosecutors, and other municipalities.) I coordinated large interactive creative events. We created an interactive Peace Museum, Murals for all ages and up to 2 thousand participants in a singular event as examples.
When the COVID pandemic hit, I was forced to shut down all things community and return to my original art form, studio painting. I realized I had a great deal to say even if I was the sole creative working on the art and message. At this time in our country and the world, I realized I was meant to say it. I have moved to art that is connecting to others using the depth of current and past suffering as well as hope for change. There is so much content to create with a hope that I will make a difference.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
Early Life/Early Influences/Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself:
Creativity has always been an active side of myself, even as a child. My mother identified it when I was eight years old and began to buy me art supplies, chemistry sets and a telescope. As I began my journey in creativity, my father left our family and we had no source of income. Art became my refuge. We had to move into public housing and that meant I started a new school. Shortly after beginning my new school, Garrison Elementary, the Principal, Mr. Scott selected me and two other students to attend an art program facilitated by artist, Matthew Monks at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Arts. My entire life changed as a result. Matthews’s view of creativity and our relationship to it, opened a portal that provided a brand-new look at methods of expression. I continued to develop art forms through my teen years and beyond. I decided to embrace drawing and painting. As I became aware of the racism in our society, I saw the limitations put on me and other artists. I remembered from conversations with Matthew Monks, the realization of me putting limitations on my own artistic expressions did not have to be drawing and painting only. They were just a few of many methods we all possessed in our abilities of creative expression. As a young adult, I consciously chose another path of expression while identifying ways to integrate my most natural forms of communication and expression.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
As a Black artist, wounds are an expectation prior to and continuing through the Civil Rights Act and beyond. The struggle to be seen, heard and appreciated was life long until my last 15 years. Overcoming the struggle has many components. Relationships with many artists in different fields such as theatre, poetry, music, dance, and painting gave me their stories and how they overcame their struggles and it encouraged me to move in that positive direction. Artists have all the control when engaging with their art but no control with how it is received and understood. Being told that you are moving forward with a city-wide project and then having it taken away is a deep wound. This has happened two times within 20 years and the pain and disappointment does not heal with age. With my history as a child whose father left, an alter boy who could not serve during mass because of being a Black boy, put in charge of my younger brothers and sister after momma went to work required my creative self to come to the surface. During school, I made certain to participate in many forms of art. Theatre, music, jazz band, marching band and drawing gave me the content and healing necessary to push through as a young adult. As I moved into art as my career, I found the depth and resilience to push through adversities. My Christian faith gave me the strength to love when feeling unloved. Looking at the suffering of Jesus Christ and the Saints, I knew that this was part of life and I must continue to move forward and hold on to hope. The struggle, the wounds and finally the resilience all have provided a dependable foundation to grow.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I have many people in my life whose character is their power. In talking over this question with my wife, Marcia, my mother, and sister came to mind and heart. My mother, Barbara was a nurse for over 40 years. She took care of people in their most vulnerable moments. Her example was a motivation for my values. I have spent 30 years working with children, teens and adults using the arts to bring a pathway for a creative life that has joy in the midst of adversity. Interactive Arts is an important journey to take together with artists and the community. My younger sister Vanessa contracted polio as a little girl. She had many surgeries and suffered immeasurable pain but kept her spirit of love and faith through it all. She is a very important inspiration to me as I understand where my values, thoughts and views were developed. I was very fortunate to have these people in my life on a regular basis.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
6. Legacy/Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
The desire to be creative has been prevalent in my life for as far back as I can remember, at 8 years old I was drawing molding clay, working with chemistry sets and telescopes acting and singing in school. Once I reached adulthood I was forced to focus my attention on financial stability, so I was forced to apply my creative abilities in my job as a customer service provider eventually became a senior supervisor in the department of 80 people when I decided I wanted to refocus my attention on my art in 1991 I retired from the corporate world, I began to develop new projects and programs and helped create unique and unusual programs which allowed the public to gain access to their creative abilities and to share them with one another I still had to bring in a certain amount of revenue in order to cover my expenses, which did not allow me to just simply paint pictures, which is what I really wanted to do, but I was very successful in the programs I created until covid when everyone was forced to work inside and that is exactly when I went back to painting pictures, and have been solidly ever since now I’m doing exactly what I believe I was born to do.
Contact Info:
- Other: Hey Google, search on artist Michael tunes will reveal a considerable amount of information on the things that I have done over the past 40 years
Image Credits
Jason Piggy photographer
Marcia Pomeroy edits
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