Tristan Reasor

Tristan Reasor (1996) is an abstract painter and poet whose work is rooted in emotional truth, adventure, and the realities of chronic pain. Creating in response to a lifetime of physical and psychological hardship, his art seeks to honor vulnerability, resilience, and the imaginative spirit. Drawing from personal experiences of illness, sensory hypersensitivity, and deep emotional introspection, his practice is a form of survival and quiet rebellion—a way of carving out sanctuary in an often harsh and confusing world.

Influenced by artists like Yayoi Kusama, Vincent Van Gogh, and Francis Bacon, Tristan uses his work to explore unorthodox ideas, challenge conventional ways of seeing, and connect with others through shared feelings of pain, hope, and wonder. His art is intimate yet expansive, often weaving in references to science, myth, and esotericism. With a deep belief in the transformative power of love, curiosity, and imagination, he strives to create work that helps others feel brave, seen, and less alone in the world.

Contact Me

Email: tdreasor@gmail.com

Artist Statement

I was born in 1996. I feel I had a childhood full of anger and fear and pain. Of having to hide and cut out parts of myself until I wasn't able to care about anything. Of trying to discover, heal, and grow. Of growing tall and twiggy before wilting and cutting back.

I graduated from Haverford College in 2019. It has felt like the world has gone crazy. I have lost more than I can remember. I worry the apocalypse has already arrived, but I have only just now begun to survive.

Over and over, I get sick. Very sick, even from something like a cold. And I barely start to recover- before I get sick all over again.

For as long as I can remember, I have suffered from pain and discomfort. Random, unexplained, often unbearable. Things that no one ever mentions feeling painful - like standing in the sun or a hair falling on skin - will suddenly feel excruciating for me. A small itch will quickly grow to feel like I am being dug into by beetles. A bead of sweat will feel like acid dissolving through me. Aches and pains and tensions pile on and on and on.

There are points where all I can do is try to make it to the next hour. Sometimes just the next minute. Where I worry that I have been lost and starving in the woods for months and that my life has just been one long, dying hallucination.

Maybe I'm naive for thinking

That a mountain so stubborn can move

But if I'm a mountain moving,

I think, maybe you can be, too.

- The Oh Hellos, Rio Grande

 

I do not want only this to be my life, and so I create. In the hope that I figure out the best things to think and the best things to do. And maybe to share that with the world.

 

Everything you thought you knew

Will fall apart, but you'll be alright.

- The Oh Hellos, Constellations

 

I have never been able to have faith. I have never been able to believe things with as much fervor as others. I change my mind about things, little things and big, almost every day. 

 

To do good is my religion.

- Thomas Paine

 

I have come to the rather tentative conclusion that there are monsters in this world. Vampires and Werewolves and Leviathans. Aliens and Big Foots and Fey.

And I have come to the brighter conclusion that it is the good that I do in this world that makes it worth being.

 

Pain doesn't make people. It is love that makes people.

- Caduceus Clay (played by Taliesin Jaffe)

 

I love bravery and perseverance. I love fun and silliness and adventure. I love life and creation. I love so many, so deeply. It is my love that has made me a poet, an artist, an adventurer.

 

If I had my own world

I'd build you an empire

From here to the far lands

To spread love like violence

- Angels & Airwaves, Secret Crowds

 

I want to create art that celebrates unorthodox, even crazy, ideas. I want to help people understand the confusing, painful, and harsh realities of this world. Not to destroy them, but to help them be prepared and brave in a world that may not always be kind to them. I want to create a place, even if just between a person and a painting, where someone can feel safe and branch out into fun and curiosity.

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 

The only things I regret are the moments when I am not working to bring the people I care about to a safe and happy future.

About Tare & Celebration

To those we have come from, something as simple as tissue paper would have been a miracle. Imagine: the ability to hygienically remove substances from a surface, and then to toss it away without the need for a second thought. There is so much that we have that is worth celebrating, even when times are hard. Sometimes I find myself so weak that I can barely stand, but I find strength in the knowledge that everything before me has worked so hard to get us here. In a world that is so full of pain and the infliction of suffering, I find hope in the things that we have built. I find solace in the slow process of starting from zero and building up. So, in ‘Tare’ and in ‘Celebration’, I bring that hope into view. They are about appreciating what we have, and building up from where we are at.