Artistic Statement
Growing up in Staten Island, my block consisted of twenty semi-attached houses, all unrecognizably uniform, with twenty working-class families who built up a network of support. The fathers worked, the mothers worked, and us kids would come together to attack the mundane with our imaginations. As a child the world seemed very small; the same houses, the same faces, the same days, however, it was not until I moved to New York City to pursue higher education, that I truly grasped the seclusion I experienced growing up. The speed at which New York City moves and operates at first quickly succumbed me and I began to seek the quiet I once knew as a child. My work defines my lived experience. My name is Thomas McMillen, I am a multimedia artist that tackles the question of mundane. Early exposure to my grandfather’s film collection has shaped my beliefs on the qualifications of art. I use artistic creation to reveal the beauty in individuals and everyday lived experiences, while finding...