Born in 1970, Salem, Oregon, USA.

Originally wanted to be a fashion designer and continues to design and make garments by hand today. Has experience with photography and worked at Interview Magazine in the early 90’s.

Heavily influenced by writer Vladimir Nabokov, specifically Lolita. Appreciates Nabokov’s use of formal structure combined with maniacal and untraditional subject matter in his work – often writing in reflection of humans in the modern world.

Like Nabokov, Tharp is also very interested in American culture today. He talks of it’s movement over time- “American culture has been strange and unsettling for some time now – but it reached this unavoidable level of absurdity in the past year. From The War to Brittney Spears. From the feuding Democratic primaries to the fact that my grandmother has a Facebook account. Polar ice caps… I was constantly blown away.”

Storm Tharp is known for his warped/distorted portraits. Each model in his work is very individual and his characters often have clown looking aspects, whether it be through makeup or clothing. Pieces appear surreal yet each character has so much personality to them. The combination of photorealistic clothing along with blurred/distorted faces creates an uneasy and eerie atmosphere to his work – as if they are not quite recognisable as human, yet we still can relate to them.

To create these blotchy and dotted appearing portraits, Tharp will initially draw onto the page using water, then drop mineral ink on top so that the ink bleeds and spreads. This technique using water and ink relates to traditional Chinese calligraphy. Once dry, he will then work on top of this to add or erase parts, sometimes even using sandpaper. Along with ink, Tharp also uses a mixture of gouache, watercolour, and coloured pencil.