Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Valentine.
Hi Tom, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
For as long as I can remember, my life has been driven by a need to create. I spent years fully immersed in the art world as a professional visual artist. Developing a distinct “Street-Folk” and pop-surrealist style, my work has always focused on taking familiar, nostalgic themes especially from 80s and 90s culture and transforming them into something bold, unexpected and entirely original.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of deeply connecting with the creative community through my work. You might recognize my pieces from being featured in regional design magazines, showcasing work during local gallery walks, or most recently, from my solo gallery exhibition, “Ballad of the Anti-Valentine.”
But as any creative will tell you, the urge to build doesn’t stop at the edge of a canvas.
Over time, that exact same creative energy naturally spilled over into another massive passion of mine: plant-based culinary arts. I saw a parallel between a blank canvas and a commercial kitchen. Just like painting, crafting high-quality, artisanal vegan comfort foods require experimentation, texture, balance, and a willingness to defy expectations.
This evolution ultimately led to the creation of Lancaster Vegan LLC. The mission is to continue a strong legacy of vibrant vegan dining by establishing a dedicated plant-based brand that honors classic comfort food while pushing culinary boundaries.
Today, my journey has come full circle. I’m no longer just putting art on gallery walls; I’m fusing my visual arts background, my love for retro physical media, and my culinary passion into a singular, community-focused brand. For me, Lancaster Vegan isn’t just a business—it’s a massive, living art project where community, nostalgia, and plant-based innovation completely collide.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been anything but a smooth road. When you are driven by a distinct creative vision, the heaviest burden is often carrying something in your head that absolutely nobody else can see or understand yet. You are constantly trying to translate a feeling, a flavor, or a visual style into reality, and the gap between your mind and the rest of the world can feel incredibly isolating.
Living in my head is an exhausting, 24/7 reality. The biggest daily struggle is controlling the obsession. When you are building a brand from scratch, the vision demands everything you have. I’ve had to fight constantly just to remember to take care of myself—to force myself to eat, to sleep, or to just find a single moment of absolute silence to quiet the noise. There is zero time for a normal life when you are entirely consumed by staying focused.
But that obsession doesn’t just take a toll on me; it takes a massive toll on my wife. It is a heavy thing for the person who loves you to watch you be completely consumed by a dream.
And the honest truth is, if it wasn’t for my wife, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I couldn’t have gotten to this place without her. When the isolation gets too loud, she is the one who makes me feel like I can accomplish absolutely anything. She rebuilds my confidence, pulling me back up right when I’m at my lowest point, using a kind of love that is unlike any other tool or resource in the world. She is the anchor that keeps me grounded when the vision threatens to carry me away.
Compounding that mental weight was the brutal reality of starting with zero money. Because I couldn’t afford to hire a team of professionals, I had to completely reinvent myself out of necessity. I had to force my creative brain to learn the rigid, dry language of accounting, bookkeeping, taxes, and government lingo. Every single specialized task—things usually handled by hired experts—fell entirely on my shoulders because there simply wasn’t a budget to outsource it. I had to train myself on the fly to be a businessman, an accountant, and a marketer, all while trying to protect the integrity of the brand.
The most painful casualty of that financial and administrative grind has been the loss of time. Art has always been my therapy; it’s how I process the world and decompress. But when you are buried under logistics, spreadsheets, and the exhausting physical demands of scaling artisanal culinary recipes, the time to sit at a canvas completely vanishes. Losing that creative outlet, even temporarily, means losing your main form of self-care right when you need it most.
It has been a journey of sheer survival, self-education, and sacrifice. But every step has been about fighting to bring that invisible vision into the light, backed by a wife who believes in me even when the road gets incredibly dark.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Art by Thomas Valentine. It’s a loud, high-contrast collision of raw neo-expressionist street art, underground comic illustration, and a heavy dose of 80s/90s pop culture nostalgia. My work is instantly recognizable by thick, heavy black outlines, intense color, and a recurring universe of characters—skulls, stylized monsters, and twisted versions of the video games, cartoons, and VHS tapes I grew up on.
What sets me apart is the hidden weight—and the deliberate trap—behind the imagery. On the surface, the artwork looks clean, simple, and fun. It looks like pure eye candy. But that polished exterior is just a front; it’s the armor I use to wrap up a massive amount of internal chaos and the daily struggle of trying to stay inside the lines of life. It’s a visual tug-of-war between a comfortable childhood memory and pure street grit.
But that depth also works in the exact opposite direction for the person looking at it. I intentionally use that bright, playful pop exterior to give people a quick escape. If you are carrying your own heavy mental noise, I want this art to make your world stand still for a second. If looking at a cartoon monster or a vibrant skull makes you happy—even just for a split second, giving you a tiny moment where your day gets a little bit brighter—then my job is completely done.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud of my solo exhibition, “Ballad of the Anti-Valentine”. For years, my brain has been an incredibly crowded, loud place to live, and painting is the mandatory therapy that keeps me sane. Standing in a gallery filled with over 50 of my unfiltered thoughts and watching people use my visual therapy to brighten up their own lives was a massive milestone. I’m proud that I haven’t watered down my underground style for anyone, and that I can still have a little fun while processing the heavy stuff.
This hits every single note perfectly. It’s raw, it’s got depth, it explains the exact purpose of the characters, and it keeps that playful signature style front and center.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite memory is a simple one: sitting by myself on the front steps of my home on warm, sunny days, just staring out for hours. There were no video games, no screens, and no noise just me letting my imagination run completely free to do whatever it wanted.
Looking back, that quiet stoop was where everything started. It was the first place I learned how to build entirely new worlds, characters, and stories in my head. That early freedom to just sit and dream is the exact same creative spark that drives my painting and my brands today. It taught me how to take a completely blank space and fill it with whatever my mind could cook up.
Contact Info:
- Website: @lancasterveganllc
- Instagram: @artbythomasvalentine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1cSo5LSkRM/?mibextid=wwXIfr
