One afternoon I went to visit Tom at his home studio on a hillside amongst redwoods in San Geronimo, CA (West Marin, County). It was a crisp fall day after an early season rain and the wet redwood forest was fragrant.  I climbed a hillside of stairs to the top level  of the house Tom built and stood for a minute at the glass door to his studio, a 20’ x 40’ space with a high, pitched, skylit ceiling and tall walls typically full of large (approx. 5’ x 7’) canvases in various stages of progress. I paused at the door, walked in quietly and sat down on a futon on the hardwood floor in a corner near the door. Tom was in deep with his work and didn’t even notice I had come in. For close to an hour, I watched him interact with his work. There was no difference between his work and him – they were one. He walked around with brushes in his hand, flowing between colors and compositions on numerous canvases. Watching Tom opened my eyes to the potential of the creative process to reflect a true impression of an artist’s Spirit upon a chosen medium. In those moments of watching him, he redefined art for me – from a cerebral product to an intimate expression.