In Conversation With Tom Summers

Hi Tom, can you tell me a bit about yourself? 

My name is Tom Summers. I'm a designer, but I really sit in the crossroads between a design and art. I am working with a lot of different mediums, like prints and ceramics. I've also recently started getting into rug making. The interesting thing about them is they all kind of have the same feeling and energy about them. There's one very specific emotional response that I want people to have to all of my work and I try to infuse it in everything I do, so it doesn't really matter what the object is.

Can you tell me what that feeling is that you're describing? 

It’s such an indescribable feeling and very hard to articulate properly. It’s very internal and private.  It's a feeling of absolute stillness, calm and depth that is drawing you in to some unknowable point.  It's a physical response as much as it is emotional, as well.  I guess it's a vision of what my utopian ideal for the outside world might be, based on my own experience and the depth of that experience. 

I want to join the utopia! What has been the process to finding each of the mediums that you work with now. 

I'll start with the prints because actually, everything else I do stems from them. My background is in fashion, so originally the prints were something I would do when I was making my portfolio for fashion design jobs. There was a lot of messing around with layouts and graphic design, I found a beautiful sense of creative flow from just arranging objects in space. People seemed to like the prints and respond to them, and they evolved as my confidence grew. But because the prints are only 2D, people find it quite difficult to engage with them fully, and it’s not the entirety of what I'm trying to achieve. So I started looking to expand outside of what I could do on the computer and Photoshop or whatever.

Because it was what I was familiar with at the time, I began by making clothes, tee-shirts with all this embroidery on it. I’d design prints and then try to replicate them with the tee-shirts in some way - not just by making a print and slapping it on a shirt. I really wanted to try and use the tactile nature of clothing to show what I was trying to show in another way.

That led me looking into other mediums, which led me to ceramics. 

I don't know how many years ago it was, like four or five. There was just this explosion of ceramics, it felt like to me.  I just started noticing it more and more. It's interesting. That completely changed my perception of ceramics, as not just something dowdy in your grandparents' living room, but really beautiful objects. That’s kind of how I started on that path.

Did you study ceramics or did you teach yourself?

I mainly taught myself, I did a couple of classes of wheel throwing but I found that I just wasn't very good at it. So yeah, I just started looking into it myself. That’s something I learned from fashion design; how easy it is to teach yourself how to make things. 

I started looking at styles that I liked and how other ceramicists were going about it, it was a lot more based on hand building anyway. It makes more sense in my mind, because it is quite similar to pattern making with clothes, where you have a flat surface that you cut into to make a 3d form. The process takes up more time than wheel throwing. It’s not something you can just pick up and do on a whim, but I really liked that aspect about it.  The lack of speed is very nice. It makes room for creative flow and allows me to get more in touch with that private, inside feeling that I get when I’m making my work. 

You’ve spoken a bit about that feeling. Are there other places or experiences that you draw inspiration from?

A lot of what I really like is based on space and the way objects are arranged in space. That lends itself often to looking at things like architecture or interiors. You can see it in my work, I’m a big fan of Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright as architects. It's nice to look at things that are outside of your field to get inspiration. I also really like the artist Anish Kapoor, his work is really, really beautiful.

And then I guess, something I find interesting is my experience as a queer person, and how it's informed my work. Queer people live with a lot of stigma and trauma attached to them in their daily life, from a range of previous experiences. It’s much better for me now, but I carry that history, and I'm creating these utopian ideals for my own personal world.  From that perspective, it's easy to see what I'm doing is it’s like a form of escapism. When you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, it's kind of like, “Oh, no wonder you're doing that.” 

What have been some challenges that you've encountered in your work?

In a very practical sense, something that I always, always, always struggle with is sourcing. Sourcing things in Australia is so difficult, your options are basic colours, like the most generic green or blue. With rug making, I'm currently trying to find a yarn supplier, and it's so difficult. You'd think that a country that's full of sheep would have this sorted out by now. I am flabbergasted by the lack of what’s available for crafts in Australia, especially since I’m trying to source locally. If you go to an American website, they have the full range, you can get anything, anything, your heart desires, whatever weight, whatever colour. It’s those kinds of things that are very frustrating. 

And then as a creative practitioner, we all experience feelings of inadequacy about our work. , I guess my biggest struggle is getting people to see my work. It's partially my own self-limitation because I'm a very private, soft spoken person. It's hard to put myself out there and say, “Look at this everyone!” or approach people, even though I'm generally very happy with the work I'm producing.  It’s quite challenging for me. 

To put myself out there more, I'd really love to participate in Melbourne design week, and I'd also really love to have a solo show somewhere. Those are two main goals that I have, so I’m excited to see if they happen.

What does the future look like for Tom Summers? You’ve mentioned the solo exhibition, are there other mediums that you're looking to pursue?

Yeah, definitely, there’s so many. I'm so excited about making rugs. I think I’ve perfected the process now, so once I have the proper yarn, I can really get going with it.

There are also specific types of furniture that I’d love the opportunity to make. I’ve started teaching myself woodworking, but I’m not very good at it yet.  Looking at collaborating with craftspeople in different mediums to create new work is always something I try to engage with creatively, as well. 

The ultimate goal for my working going forward is to be able to fill an entire immersive space with objects that I've made, to create that emotional response that pulls you in, and makes you want to keep travelling through it.