Along the Interstate 695 underpass on 3rd Street SE—frequented daily by commuters driving into Washington, D.C.—is Schrodinger’s Cat, a 50-foot mural painted by Tom Kim for the 2024 DC Walls festival. Kim views murals as “a fun way to engage with the community.”
After more than three years working in commercial art, Kim attended medical school at NYU. “If I was going to be an artist, I needed to have some life experience,” he recalls. Following his emergency medicine residency at George Washington University, Kim spent six years working night shifts at one of Washington’s busiest ERs while cultivating an art community. As his paintings began selling more quickly, he committed to art full time. “Visual arts give me a sense of purpose,” the studio arts major says. “I’m telling my story and other people’s stories.” His contemporary style draws on film, television, old cartoons, and daily news to document the present. An instructor at Smithsonian Associates Studio Arts, Kim says teaching helps him sharpen his craft.
“Many alumni who set aside their true passion never take it up again,” says friend Matthew B. Nelson ’00. “Tom demonstrates that it is never too late to pick up whatever was a source of joy and fulfillment during your time in Hanover.”
