A painter, usually in acrylic, of iconic western figures including cowboys, Indians and white-male shoot-em-up villains, Thom Ross is dedicated to "historical ghosts", that is depicting events of frontier American history such as The Alamo and Custer's Last Stand in a way that cuts through mythology and shows underlying realism. He is bored by the traditional images of heroes and unlikely feats or accomplishments, and is dedicated to keeping American history alive---as it really happened. When he is not at his easel, he is reading books from which he gets ideas for more paintings.

Many of his pieces are humorous such as his Indians Playing Pingpong, which shows men in full feather headdresses hav...