Thomas Woodruff - a fine artist, an illustrator and the chairman of the undergraduate illustration department at the School of Visual Arts - is one of those men you don't forget. Not only because of his tattooed arms and colorful attire, but mostly because of his words, which still echo in my head from my student days at SVA.

Tom's new solo exhibition, The Solar System, opens tomorrow night at the P.P.O.W. Gallery in Chelsea. The series is inspired by Gustav Holst's 1916 orchestral suite, The Planets. But Tom's suite of paintings finds its closure with a painting of the sun, done in acrylic gouache and 24-carat gold that emulates the beauty and intensity of Holst's cosmic symphony. In an email interview last week, I asked Tom about his new paintings.

Left to right: Mercury; Sun; Mars, from Thomas Woodruff's Solar System, copyright the artist, courtesy of P.P.O.W. Gallery.

FC: Excess is a term I've heard used to describe your work, aesthetically, conceptually and symbolically. Your paintings have a somewhat dark quality, characterized by their depth in message and color. Where does this spring from?
TW: I don't consider my work dark; I consider it serious and rich, but not dark. I feel that our culture today is fixated on silliness and fun, nearly to the point of being inane. I always have been a bit contrary, but excess should always be with a purpose in mind, be it informational, poetic, or aesthetic.

FC: When I was a student at SVA you recommended that we listen to orchestral music while we worked. Is this why you looked to Gustav Holst for inspiration?
TW: My projects generally have a long gestation period and it seemed to be the next logical step in a body of work that I've created over the years using the structure I find in, say, a calendar, a countdown, a parade, and now the solar system. Holst's The Planets has always been a piece that I've enjoyed listening to. I do like what they call "program music," that is, work written with an illustrative point of view.

FC: How does the solar system relate to the two-sided faces?
TW: I was thinking about "power figures," or characters like gods who change from one incarnation to another. I was also going through a period in my life where the concept of the loving god/ wrathful god seemed more apparent.

FC: Can you tell me about the symbolism you used to create the right atmosphere for each set of characters?
TW: Thematically, Mars, the God of War, has the fireworks implying both victory and warfare. In the sun painting, I wanted to challenge my own perceptions on how I read things visually and how I look at characters. The mistake is to think life is just about good and bad, yin and yang. For me it is more about a shifting perspective on the way we see the world. But the viewer should look at the series and think for himself to create a meaning out of the whole. People who have already seen the paintings in my studio have remarked that they don't look at anyone the same way after immersion in the topsy-turvy world of Woodruff!

The opening reception for Thomas Woodruff's Solar System is October 10, 6 to 8 pm. The exhibition will run through November 15th. P.P.O.W. Gallery, 555 West 25th Street, 2nd FL., New York.

Fernanda Cohen is a Brooklyn-based artist who works in advertising, editorial, fashion, window display and events programming, mainly as an illustrator. She is a member of the undergraduate illustration department faculty at the School of Visual Arts.