In his work, Thomas deliberately cultivates the practice of not overdoing something. There is nothing idealized or obsessively sophisticated about this rather it is reminiscent of Zen, the philosophy of the conscious, resplendently empty moment. It is earthy, harsh and tender.

The affectionate eye of an artist for the unfinished nature of his creations is at work here, a gaze ambivalent like that of a God in the creation myth: the being that you create is a life as yet wholly undetermined, it is limited and imperfect. You could perhaps improve upon it. You look at it though and at some point you say to yourself: that will do. It’s fine like that. That will happen when it looks like you.