Tom Laura (Big Toe) - California USA

BigToe (aka Tom Laura)

Tom was raised in SoCal on a steady beach-rat diet of Ed Roth, Mad Magazine and Surfer Magazine's Rick Griffin. "BigToe" creates art with a casual, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and playful eroticism that offers a nostalgic escape in our fast-paced and ever-changing world.

Upon graduation art school in the mid-eighties, he was uninspired by the snootiness of the dominant NY art scene that was happening. So Tom went into the surf industry. He's been happily hacking away in anonymity for the past couple decades: Making a decent living, raising a pair of beautiful kids in the 'burbs and surfing as much as his busy life will allow. 

As a student of Polynesian culture, traveling to the South Pacific has been a big influence. Tom has visited most of the Hawaiian Islands, several islands of Tahiti and the Society Islands, Fiji and even Western Samoa. The family's fav is definitely 'da Kona side of da Big Island'!

BigToe art is inspired by the confluence of Tiki, Kustom and Surf culture. The fusion of these seemingly disparate lifestyles has always been an obvious one to the artist: all 3 are outsider ways of life. The last vestiges of wild west renegades.

BigToe's artwork has been featured in Art Galleries in the US from Southern California to New York and Orlando, and in Canada, Australia, Hawaii and Japan. as well as Books and Magazines worldwide.