Artist Profile | Cartoon & Caricature

Tom Fluharty

Thomas Fluharty has always been an artist. Drawing and painting came naturally to him from an early age, drawing in math class or in the car on the way to little league, or during breakfast. At the urging of a tenth-grade art teacher, he applied to a commercial vocational art school for his junior and senior year and was accepted. There he was exposed to artists such as Maxfield Parrish, Bernie Fuchs and Bob Peak. He was hooked and becoming an illustrator became the main goal of his life. Upon graduation, he was accepted into the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, majoring in illustration, and upon graduation was offered a job at New York City's premier illustration studio, Gem Studio, where he trained with Ken Bald. of Dr. Kildare and Dark Shadows for thirteen years. Tom has expanded his studies at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts. About twelve years ago he received classical training in Dutch and Flemish techniques studying with Jeff Hurinenko and the great Joe Paquet. His work has appeared on the covers of 2Mad magazine, Der Spiegel2 and “Time” magazine, which covered the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. His work appears notably in The Weekly Standard, for which he has painted more than 100 covers. He has worked for other magazines and companies such as “People Magazine”, “Entertainment Weekly”, “Sports Illustrated”, “The Village Voice”, “Coca-Cola” and the “New York Times”. Fluharty’s work has received national recognition from the Society of Illustrators of New York and Los Angeles and from 2Communication Arts Illustration annuals.” He won a gold medal for “Spectrum Fantastical Art” for his depiction of Hillary Clinton and a bronze medal for his painting of the cover of Max Lucado’s book, “The Boy and the Ocean” for 3x3 Magazine of Contemporary Illustration under the alias of her children's book T. Lively Fluharty.