‘Tom’
2021
Acrylic on Recycled Timber
585mm x 900mm
Tom is a portrait of a magpie that regularly visited Tervo during the COVID lockdowns. The work comes from a pivotal period in his life, as he was leaving a career in car sales to pursue art and study to become a high school art teacher. As an extrovert, he found lockdown especially difficult. Cut off from friends, work and community, he found an unexpected sense of companionship in the bird that returned to his home each day, trading song and chatter for food. He named the magpie Tom, after his friend Tom Thum, in recognition of the bird’s remarkable ability to mimic the sounds of the neighbourhood.
In the painting, Tom is perched on a pair of RM Williams boots that Tervo wore throughout his years in car sales. Known among colleagues as the “stink boots”, they had carried him through long days, hard work, heat, mud and rain. They had become a symbol of endurance, professionalism and a chapter of life he was preparing to leave behind.
Growing from one of the upright boots is a grevillea flower. It stands for hope, growth and the possibility of a different future. In that sense, Tom is both a portrait and a turning-point painting. It reflects a moment of isolation, uncertainty and transition, but also the small forms of connection that helped carry him through it.