LatinosUSA

Today, I’m delighted to introduce you to artist and poet Ken Tomaro. I met Ken through fellow LatinosUSA editor, Nolcha Fox. Ken and Nolcha co-authored a delightful book, Seesaw: Quirky Poems. I’ve included my review of this book at the end of this post.

Welcome Ken Tomaro

Tell us a bit about your art journey. Did you always want to be an artist? You are self-taught. How did you set about learning to draw and paint – books, YouTube, or intuition and practice?

Being an artist, writer and baker were never on my radar of things I might accomplish in this lifetime. It all sort of happened organically. Many years ago I would walk around downtown Cleveland and take photos of some of the architecture. Due to some technical difficulties with my camera and the two others after I decided to pick up a paint brush and see what would happen.

Yes, I am self-taught and I just learned by doing and then doing it again and again. My brother offered to give me a book on techniques and theories or some boring technical stuff but my brain doesn’t work like that. Books on that stuff remind me of being in school and being forced to do things a certain way. I need to jump into something and get my hands dirty, get frustrated, angry, messy, make mistakes and happy accidents until I come up with something I like. A lot of my paintings from the past came from a picture or object I saw somewhere on the Internet and then I would put my spin on it…Blue trees with purple leaves kind of spin.

What is your favourite medium for your art and why?

When I was really going at the painting I’d say acrylics where my favorite. The are easy to work with and blend, dry quickly and clean up with just water. Right now with the sillier pieces I’m doing it’s a mix of acrylic paint and oil pastels…which for anyone who isn’t familiar, are just fancy crayons.

A selection of Ken’s artworks

Click on the slideshow to see the two paintings.

Planetary and Swamp thing are both older pieces done with acrylic paint. Planetary was just an idea that popped into my head and it’s one of the very few that I didn’t end up painting over several times out of frustration. It may not be exactly as it was in my head but I really liked how the colors and the painting as a whole came together. Swamp thing was a happy accident. If I remember correctly, I tried several techniques and colors that I didn’t like so I took an old credit card or business card and started scraping layers off and then ended up with this. To me it looks like a swamp and again I really like how the colors work together. It’s also the cover art to a poetry chapbook called You’ve Got It All Wrong, published by Prolific Pulse Press.

Standing Lonely is a photo I took in downtown Cleveland many years ago. I know nothing about Photoshop (another big boring book of techniques and how-tos I want nothing to do with) and my camera had some basic software that I could change a couple of things like exposure, brightness, etc. I like the contrast of colors in this one as well as the starkness of the one lonely pigeon in the foreground. It ended up being used as the cover for an issue of Alien Buddha magazine. It was also the inspiration for the title of another one of my published poetry chapbooks, Standing lonely in the alley.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Who will you shit on? Ham time and Beautiful blue are all from my recent collection of smaller, more nonsensical pieces and are all a mix of acrylic, oil pastels and charcoal pencil. I put down the paint brush a few years ago for various reasons and when I picked it back up in the last year or so it was with the stipulation that the pieces should be done in one sitting (mostly under an hour or so), I wasn’t going to take it too seriously which makes creating them way less stressful and more enjoyable to create, and that I was doing this for me and no one else so if they make no sense or they make other people scratch their heads, I don’t care. I like them. The downside is I know have about 60 of these smaller pieces and no idea what to do with them. But I like them so much that’s not really such a bad thing.

Who is your current favourite artist?

This answer is going to be a dud. I don’t have a favorite artist. I don’t care for museum art or things that were created hundreds of years before I was born. The subject matter doesn’t appeal to me. The colors don’t appeal to me. I prefer vivid and bright colors and abstracts usually done by emerging artists most people have never heard of.

What’s next for Ken Tomaro?

Well, it all happens organically for me. As you know I also write poetry and some short stories so I’m always flipping back and forth. I’d like to have some simple animation done for some of my writing but that seems to be slow going. So basically, more writing, painting and listening to the birds. There’s a mishmash of it all on my website: https://kentomaro.com/

Ken Tomaro, the poet

Ken Tomaro is a talented poet and writer as well as a painter. You can find his poetry on his blog here: https://kentomaro3.wordpress.com/2026/06/20/one-evening-in-cleveland/

My review of Seesaw: Quirky Poems by Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox

This poetry collaboration between Nolcha Fox and Ken Tomaro is darkly humorous and most entertaining. The poems celebrate daily life in all its boring ordinariness and, by demonstrating how much worse it could be if these chores and activities were not undertaken, highlight the charm of ordinary life. They also ‘take the mick’ out of people’s ridiculous obsession with social media and watching life being lived by others. These poems made me smile and reminded me of the poetic works of Roald Dahl.

Two short extracts that highlight the style and content of the poems:

«Debris that hurries by

becomes a melody and why

aren’t we taking cover

instead of videoing

this hurricane

on our phones?

Aluminum siding

and a trampoline whiz by.

So, I’ll snap a pic

for all the wandering eyes,

just to break the monotony

of cat photos

on my phone.»

«I come to a door

I open it.

Not because it is easy,

or because I’m curious,

or because I’m bored,

but because it is the only one

that will open.

I take weak little steps.

Not because I am unsure,

but because I am tired.

I follow the same path.

Not because it is worn,

but because all paths are the same.

The only door that opens

is to dirty dishes, unmade beds,

laundry someone left behind.

By the time I clean this house,

I’ll be too weak

to find a pathway out of here.»

A book that will give your spirits a lift as you laugh at yourself and life.

Purchase Seesaw: Quirky Poems from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Seesaw-Quirky-Poems-Ken-Tomaro-ebook/dp/B0F22N2D5T/

About Ken Tomaro

Never until recently did he consider writing poetry. Not when he slid from the womb or felt the first tingle of teen hormones. Not after he got married, divorced, moved to another city, lost a couple of jobs, and moved back. It just sort of happened. Ken Tomaro, bestselling author and self-proclaimed poet laureate of the Cleveland sewer system, has been writing poetry for a few short years. He’s not famous, recognized, or read in schools across America. He has been published in several literary journals, done a couple podcasts, started the YouTube channel, Screaming Down the Poetic Highway, and that’s pretty damn impressive.

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Social Media Links

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ
Unsplash profile: https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle