Tom Barnes Memorial and Art Exhibit

Tom Barnes passed away unexpectedly at his home in Seattle on July 6, 2026. He was 73 years old. The colorful, creative life of an endearing eccentric artist has come to an end, leaving behind an unforgettable body of work and a sprawling, sometimes improbable chosen family of friends, artists, musicians, performers, coworkers, travelers, muses, and assorted characters.

Tom was born June 24th, 1953 in Toledo, Ohio. As a young man, he wandered west to Washington State and eventually made his way to Holden Village on the shores of Lake Chelan. With his eerily Jesus-like appearance: tall, slender frame, long blond hair, blue eyes, and neatly trimmed beard, he endeared himself to all in the fully-costumed role of Gandalf during Holden Village's annual celebration of Bilbo Baggins' birthday.

At Holden Village, Tom became lifelong friends with the Caemmerer family; Richard and Elisabeth Caemmerer and their children, David, Kathie, and Matthew, at the Grünewald Guild, the artist community they founded in Plain, Washington, where he served as head cook. The Caemmerers welcomed him as one of their own, creating a lifelong, laughter-filled lifeline for Tom. Though Tom had formal arts training, he earnestly revered Richard as a mentor who introduced hin to a deeper, more tangible experience or both arts practice and appreciation.

Tom attended the Banff Centre for Arts on scholarship and lived in New York City while working at PS 122. He later graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, graduating in 1983 with a BFA in performing arts, theater, and painting. Evergreen became another place where he found his people - "Greeners” - forming numerous lifelong friendships. His years there coincided with a burgeoning contemporary and rough-edged visual art, music, theater, and interdisciplinary performance scene stretching between Olympia and Seattle. Alongside his college sidekick and friend Mark Chambers, Tom wrote and produced the popular play City of Siege.

His artistic life took him far beyond Washington. His Drawing on the Run series became a visual journal of his travels and observations. He was a lifelong traveler, all over the US, Latin America and Southeast Asia when he was younger and in recent years to Mérida, Mexico, and New Orleans. Tom loved theater and dance, clothes and fashion, nightlife and burlesque. He loved to drink, draw, and look at sexy people. He had a particular affection for his muses and an enormous and enduring infatuation with Taylor Swift. A self-described chronicler, Tom carried an eight-by-eight-inch sketchbook and drew urgent observations of life whirling around him: from the Cascades to the Comet Tavern, from the Lusty Lady to Zipolite, from Chiang Mai to the Cha Cha Lounge. He drew in taverns, coffee shops, parks, burlesque shows, theaters, and on the street, working directly from life with a Uniball pen and later completing the drawings with watercolor. He refused to use photographs because he considered it cheating; he wanted to draw what excited him while he was actually looking at it. His rule was simple: “stay true to the line.”

The vortex of Capitol Hill always called him back. For more than four decades, Tom made Seattle his home, embracing its artists, musicians, cafés, taverns, theaters, festivals, and colorful characters. Tom worked at On The Boards and as a telemarketer for Seattle Repertory Theater, and Seattle Theatre Group, where he won the “Subscriber Concierge of the Year” award for the 2015/2016 season. He also worked multiple festivals at Seattle Center for Michael Callahan’s Big City Burrito, including Folklife, Bumbershoot, and Festival Sundiata. He was a fantastic cook and had a deep investment in other artists, particularly younger ones, often encouraging them and looking out for them when times were hard. Tom formed close friendships with artists across generations and took genuine pleasure in encouraging their work. Many of these younger artists became part of his chosen family, keeping up with him and looking after him as well, in ways that meant a great deal to him. He inspired them, and they inspired him.

Tom's work was exuberant, densely layered, whimsical, fearless, colorful, and wonderfully excessive. A 2012 profile described him as a free-wheeling, cussin', hard-drinking lover of nightlife, which anyone who knew him would probably recognize as a reasonably accurate description. He could also be stubborn, difficult, opinionated and self-destructive. He was not particularly interested in being universally agreeable, and his friends knew better than to expect moderation from him in much of anything.

His thousands of drawings, paintings, journals, and stories remain, as do the chosen family and people who remember him. There will be a monthlong art show for September 2026 at Vermillion and a public memorial on September 5, 2026 from 5-8pm.

Visit Tom's work at .

Please share photos and videos you would like included in the slideshow: [email protected]

Vermillion Art Gallery & Bar

1508 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

vermillionseattle.com

[email protected]

Soft Art Opening: Thursday, September 3, 2026 5-8pm. Art show runs through 10/3/26. Capitol Hill Art Walk: Thursday, September 10, 5–9 PM

Memorial Celebration: Saturday, September 5, 5–8 PM, Music by Monty Banks. (Afterparty at Cha Cha Lounge 1013 East Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98122)

Adapted from input from Steve Broin, Andrea Wagner, Steve Groves, Karen Hancock and excerpts from an interview with Victoria Farr Brown.