Chip Thomas

Arizona

Chip Thomas, aka jetsonorama, is a photographer, public artist and physician who worked in a small clinic on the Navajo Nation. A graduate of HBCU Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN and a National Health Service Corps scholarship recipient, his 4-year obligation turned into 36 years of service with the Diné. While there he coordinated the Painted Desert Project which he describes as a community building dialog manifested as a constellation of murals and other public art works created by artists from the Navajo Nation as well as from around the world. This project ran for 10 years. Thomas began his own public artwork in 2009 which consists of enlarged black and white photographs pasted onto structures along the roadside primarily on the Navajo Nation. His motivation for this project is to reflect to the community the love and beauty they shared with him over the years. Since leaving the Navajo Nation in 2023 Thomas has continued to create community based murals in minority neighborhoods. As a member of the Justseeds Artists Co-operative he appreciates the opportunity to be part of a community of like-minded, socially engaged artists. You can find his large scale photographs pasted on the roadside, on the sides of houses in the northern Arizona desert, on the graphics of the Peoples Climate March, Justseeds and 350.org carbon emissions campaign material. Thomas was a 2018 recipient of a Kindle Project gift and in 2020 was one of a handful of artists chosen by the UN to recognize the 75th anniversary of the UN's founding. Artists were chosen to generate work that "contributes to the envisioning and shaping of a more resilient and sustainable future. It is hoped that this work will amplify and accelerate implementation of the UN Global Sustainability Goals with a focus on communities and climate action."

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