For many years Deaton worked exclusively in print media, focusing on woodcuts, screenprints, and engravings. Building upon this experience, Deaton describes his process as attempting to reconcile the differences and similarities between painting and printmaking. Deaton’s paintings utilize skills he learned from printmaking such as the masking and layering of individual colors and the strong mark making of relief prints; his paintings replicate the style of printed material. Vivid colors and geometric buildings characterize Deaton’s style, distinctly urban scenes appear to be overgrown with wild vegetation in a display of nature reclaiming the streets of the city. Amidst these dystopian landscapes, Deaton presents subtle signs of human life, nodding to the sublime relationship of person vs. nature.

In his more recent work, Deaton has been increasingly drawn to digital media. Although his works are not composed digitally, Deaton attempts to recreate a digital-like style in an analog fashion. Specifically, Deaton is inspired by the simplified geometric forms that can at times approach Abstraction, popular throughout the early era of polygonal graphics in video games from the 90s. Deaton’s practice combines fake three dimensionality, isometric perspective, and naturalistic portrayals of plants, animals, and people; creating an apt visual metaphor linking the struggle between the man-made and the natural.

Thomas Deaton is a Louisiana native born in Lafayette where he earned a BFA studying printmaking at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Subsequently he attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA receiving his MA and MFA focusing on printmaking and drawing. His recent exhibitions include Places I Remember, Lemieux Galleries (New Orleans), Good Dudes Good Times, Good Children Gallery (New Orleans) and Renegade Artist Collective, The Building (New Orleans). His previous exhibitions include A Distant Thunder, Porch Gallery (Iowa City) and Out of Hibernation, Paabus Pop-up Gallery (IowaCity).