15 Pieces From Self-Taught Artist Tom Hickman’s “Laughable Art”

Tom Hickman is a self-taught embroidery artist hailing from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He has foregone the modern amenities of life and prefers to spend his time alone in a craft with limited access to the outside world. He holds no phone, iPad, television or even Wi-Fi. He enjoys a silent start to his days so he can live a life of quiet contemplation that allows him to focus on the highest priorities on his “to-do” list.  In a recent statement, Hickman wrote, “Naïve, primitive, amateur, provincial, self-taught, non-academic: stylistically there is no one term that satisfactorily describes my stitching of sheep on tweed remnants. Some would say they are not even art, being well outside the realms of taste established by the elite culture, however, I prefer to regard them as a truly vernacular response to my Hebridean island surroundings”. More info: Facebook | RobertYoungAntiques.Com

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Hickman has been blessed with a natural talent for finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. His inquisitive nature and creative instinct have helped hone his ability to blend mixed mediums to arrive at his compositions. Dabbling with “collaged” remnants of locally woven Harris tweed, Hickman works and embroiders with coloured yarns, raw and felted wools and various other materials he has to hand. Expressing roots in British folk art tradition and imbued with a childlike quality that exudes a delightfully uninhibited freedom, Hickman himself describes his work as “Laughable Art” that isn’t usually found in academic art. 

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