Tom Acosta

Tom Acosta was born in Iaeger, West Virginia, in 1959, the fourth of seven children of a Mexican-American coal miner father and an American mother of Scotch-Irish heritage. With the exception of a high school art class, he is entirely self-taught. Growing up, Acosta’s family not only lacked an automobile but was so poor that the budding artist used heavy cream instead of glue to attach his youthful renderings to the wall. 

As a young man. Acosta left West Virginia at the age of twenty-one, moving to the Florida flatlands. In 1985 he moved to the small town of Mount Airy, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, Tom made a move back to his home state of West Virginia, his first beginning. He moved to another small town of Bramwell, West Virginia, and then in December of 2006 Tom bought the “Houston Mansion,” located in Kimball, West Virginia, where he resides today. 

Though his early work has a nostalgic, Rockwellish feel to it- as if Acosta were trying to recreate for himself the mythical American childhood that he never had- as it has evolved, a starkness and severity has emerged, aligning it more closely with such giants as Andrew Wyeth and Winslow Homer. “I’m drawn to the seasons of fall and winter, when everything’s dead,” says Acosta. In his home, he is able to hone in on his life themes; Heritage of the coalfields; Historical architecture of the state of West Virginia; and Mythical journey of his own life - among them, the omnipresence of God and the reality of death, two themes that are often not played out in austere, rural landscapes. Each day presents a potential to be filled - - a purpose to paint. 

Throughout his career, Acosta’s work has been an emotional exploration of his own background as the American outsider, first as a Mexican-American living in a coal mining country, and again as a person from the Appalachian Mountains living in a larger context of mainstream American culture. “My work involves me from the heart with the significant people and events in my life, including my father, who was born in a boxcar outside of Chicago, whose life was marked by sacrifice and suffering, and my maternal grandmother, who identified a birthmark on my leg, it resembles a cross, which she took as a sign for my future.” These experiences are part of his inspiration and hold a deep emotional attachment for him. This emotion shines through his work. 

Acosta began his career with oils, and later worked in both watercolor and acrylics. Today, he relies heavily on oil, painted on wood panels. The off-kilter perspective in many of his works challenges viewers to deal with the image personally in their own minds. 

A true understanding of art comes from a true appreciation and reverence for life.