Young Mi Lamine interviewed me back in March 2009. Here's a section of the transcript.
If you would like to read more, click here and download the document.

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YML Where does your inspiration come from?

Tom J Byrne: Every time I close my eyes ((laughs)) I get a lot of information just from closing my eyes when I do... when I meditate and my brain fills up with images and, um, quite often I have difficulty switching off these ideas. So that's basically where it is.

YML So, um, what's... in what way does... I mean when you are meditating and thinking about models, images, how do you transform it into concrete paintings or ideas?

Tom J Byrne: Ah that is the hardest thing, it's really is difficult to do that. I... because... one of the reasons that I came to France was to study because no one really knows how to make paint the way the old masters used to. No one knows how to formulate their own mixes and... but I found two or three people here in Paris who use the old techniques and who work the way the Renaissance artists work and even teach the techniques of Greek painters who worked in the tombs of the Egyptians and these techniques are very old. There's an awful lot of information which is lost and I came here to study this and through learning this I can approach a painting with a lot more confidence, knowing or almost knowing that I will be able to paint whatever I imagine. This isn't always possible because sometimes I imagine things that, although they are quite interesting structurally, don't always make good paintings. I can't always imagine them... imagine the technique or the method to go from the idea, the imaginary idea to do a piece of work on a canvas but sometimes I can and I'm more and more finding ways.

This interview was part of a research study by Young Mi. You can read the results of the study here.