Biography

A life long creator, I taught myself to play songs on the organ or piano and made up skits and performed them for my family and friends. Funny my first show was In Concert. In primary school I shot photos for yearbook and performed in plays, painted sets and sewed costumes, but soon lost interest when I found alcohol and a spray can. This led to crazy years of singing with garage bands, and a little felony destruction of property. Thanks mom for bailing me out! It was only a night in a holding cell.

In college I worked for creators and collectors, inspecting jewelry and roof racks as well as slinging cocktails and ripping and running. In 1990 I put the plug in the jug, went back to school and graduated from El Camino College. I started working in the technology space climbing the corporate ladder and gaining some success. In an effort to cope with the stress of corporate, I always crafted. I refinished furniture and was taught the art of quilt-making in my 30’s and created nearly 100 quilts. The years of inside sales, physical labor and looking down at sewing machines took its toll on my body, and when that big software company closed shop in Los Angeles, I was laid off, pregnant and in big trouble with my health.

Since then, I have not been able to return to full time employment, but I have always been interested in serving as a volunteer. I am a member of my community. When my youngest started in school, I became a part of South Bay Hands On Art, a grassroots group of mostly parent volunteers that brought 6 quality art projects a year to nearly 10,000 students in the South Bay and surrounding inner city schools. I stayed with Hands on Art for 10 years even when I started homeschooling my own child. I love the program dearly and am forever grateful for the exposure to people, artists, materials, master techniques, and art theory. I served on the board of directors for 5 years as the Program Supply Chairwoman purchasing and invoicing for a 20 school program. I served on the Design Committee selecting projects, meeting with artists, and attending workshops regularly. Mentors and working artists in HOA and in the Redondo Beach Art Group invited me to participate in local shows and join local art groups when they spotted some of my work for one of their charitable events. My first show was a group show in March 2017 in concert with the Beach Cities Symphony Maestro Barry conducting Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Stravinsky’s Firebird. One of those pieces “Firebird” was featured in The Game Of Thrones show at ShockBox Gallery in Hermosa Beach. I’ve shown work in just a few juried shows since then.

We’ve been on COVID lockdown since March 17, 2020. I still have the opportunity to serve in this time of need, but I really want to share this explosion of emotional work that I have been creating in my little bedroom/studio. I am in the process of trying to start a little business and building a website www.kerrythomasart.com that may lay the groundwork for my children and grandchildren to continue to create and have a platform for it. Hoping our little homeschool The Larkin Thomas Academy for Wayward Pets Children will someday be home to “Thomas Art.”