Thom Ross

Thom Ross is an American artist specializing painting, book illustrations, and installation art featuring life-sized cutout figures depicting famous people and historical events.

Biography

Ross was born in San Francisco, California, in 1952, and raised in Sausalito. As a child he became interested in the history of the American Old West by watching television shows such as Bonanza, Rawhide, and Have Gun – Will Travel, as well as John Wayne films. and opened his own art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Works

Ross works in various media including Painting, book illustration, and life-sized recreations of historical scenes. Favorite subjects include Cowboys, Indians, and historical battles in the American Indian Wars. Ross has illustrated at least 20 books, including a history of baseball. In 2001 Ross published a book, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Words and Pictures. In 2002 Ross illustrated the 100th anniversary edition of Owen Wister's novel, The Virginian. In 1984, Ross created "the Catch", a diorama for the Baseball Hall of Fame illustrating a legendary catch with the same nickname, by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series. He created a new version of the work in 2004, and displayed it in various locations in New York City. In 1998 Ross created "The Defining Moment" for SAFECO Field, a tableau of 11 steel cutouts of a Ken Griffey, Junior play in the 1995 baseball playoffs. Ross' 2005 work, "Custer's Last Stand", was a recreation of life-sized warriors riding life-sized horses the Battle of Little Bighorn at the original site at Medicine Tail Coulee in Montana. That exhibit toured Cody, Wyoming, Jackson, Wyoming, and Sun Valley, Idaho.