“My love of history, my enjoyment in story-telling, and my passion for painting … supplies as much in artistic enjoyment as it does in the contemplation of history and the people and events which so shaped it.”  - Thom Ross

Born in San Francisco in 1952, Thom has had a lifelong interest in American History and the “folk hero” who is a product of that history and has long been the motivating force behind his work. His emphasis, however, is focused on the historical “folk hero” as compared to the mythical “folk hero." An example of the historical folk hero would be Jesse James, a mythical folk hero would be Paul Bunyan; one actually existed while the other is a product of tall tales.

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.