{"id":323,"date":"2009-04-16T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2009-08-12T15:16:07","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T23:16:07","slug":"remembering-tom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Tom"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hi Friends,\r\n\r\nI don't know if I've got a well crafted narrative for you, and I don't\r\nhave a lot of pictures.  But Tom had a great impact on my life, so I\r\nwant to share a couple of thoughts.\r\n\r\nI first got to know him a few years ago when I started working at the\r\nBox Shop.  I was just starting to work with metal, and he was already\r\nan accomplished metal artist, so I was amazed at the work he did.  As\r\nhe built steel globes, some early tank bells, and worked on that Brian\r\nGoggin piece with the books, we'd chat about technique, the artistic\r\nprocess, music, or whatever.  In a lot of ways, just everyday casual\r\nconversation, but coming at a time when I was eagerly pushing into a\r\nnew field, these conversations meant a lot to me, and were a big\r\ninfluence on my perceptions of what metal art is about.  The metal\r\nglobes in particular would later influence my thinking when I decided\r\nto start a robotic art project, where the robots have spherical shells\r\nmade from aluminum.\r\n\r\nA couple years later, Tom was talking to Ben Cohen about what would\r\nbecome the Topsy Turvy Bus project.  Ben, having seen a lot of bad\r\nrollover accidents on snowy New England roads, was worried about\r\nsafety, so Tom brought me in as an engineering consultant on the\r\nproject.  On many levels, this was one of the best projects I ever\r\nworked on.  I got to do some good engineering, collaborating with Tom,\r\nHaideen, Flash, Chris deMonterrey, Cybersam, and other good folks Tom\r\nintroduced me to, and was able to pay some bills in the process.  At\r\nthe same time, we were contributing to an important political cause,\r\nwith the good work Ben's organization was doing.  Rarely in my life\r\nhave so many of my interests been concentrated in one activity.  I\r\nknow it was also a lot of back-breaking labor, and I wish I could have\r\nbeen around for a more of it.  But it will always stand as an\r\nincredible example of what can happen when great people put their\r\nhearts and minds together, and I will always value the memories of the\r\ngreat people I got to spend time with.\r\n\r\nSince then, most of my interaction with Tom has been back to sharing\r\nideas at the Box Shop.  To the end, I was always impressed with his\r\noptimism, his ability to see the best in people, his ability to work\r\nhard in the face of incredible odds, and his readiness with a smile\r\nand a kind word.  I think he truly lived his beliefs, and he will\r\nalways stand as a good example of what a truly inspired human can\r\nachieve in a life.  He left us too soon; there was a lot more good he\r\ncould have done in this world.  But that just drives home the\r\nimportance of always pushing to realize your dreams, since you never\r\nknow how much time you've got.\r\n\r\nI resolve to do my best to understand Tom's mission in the world, and\r\nto forward it in what little ways I can.\r\n\r\nMy thoughts are with you, his loved ones, the incredible community he\r\nbuilt around him.  I will miss Tom dearly, and my heart breaks for\r\nyour loss.  My thoughts are with you in this difficult time.\r\n\r\nPeace,\r\n-Michael Prados<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi Friends, I don’t know if I’ve got a well crafted narrative for you, and I don’t have a lot of pictures. But Tom had a great impact on my life, so I want to share a couple of thoughts. I first got to know him a few years ago when I started working at… Read More »Remembering Tom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-sent-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}