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 the dualities between the old and the new. My media includes digital and film photography, videography and collages.