The Alexes are in their empire-building era.

Alexandria and Alexander Thom are co-business owners, artists, and married. As owners of West Side Studio, Gallery, and Spin Art, which opened in November 2025, the couple have started the latest chapter of their conjoined art business, having first embarked upon their full-time life of living art out loud in 2014, as artists on the festival circuit.

Alexandria, whose passion lies in the sculpture arts but who can adeptly wield a paintbrush, excels in skin art, specifically face paint. Alexander, a renowned graffiti and street artist practicing in Canada and Niagara Falls, found a knack for the funny with his caricature work. They became a welcome addition to the region’s festivals, often seeing lines of people willing to wait to have her art on their skin or their likeness captured by him.

“I’ve been doing art since forever, for as long as I can remember,” Alexandria said. “I started sculpting in high school. I really liked it.”

That first project was a bird — she had never worked with clay before, but was immediately hooked.

After high school Alex practiced her painting and portrait work while holding various day jobs, dreaming of a time when she could live her art full-time. When she befriended a fellow artist at a day job, it was kismet. 

I’ve been doing art since forever, for as long as I can remember.

They became friendly, carpooling home and talking about art. Alexander had moved to Lockport seeking a “normal” life after time as a long-distance trucker, then full-time street artist. He still practiced his work and even had a showing that basically sealed the deal with Alexandria, who came out to support and found herself falling in love with more than just the work. But art wasn’t life anymore.

However, those long conversations with Alexandria began to ignite something, something that looked like love and art intermingled in a vision — what was normal, anyway? And why did he want it?

Festival season was swiftly on the way, so Alexander proposed something audacious — Alexandria should quit her job and join him on the circuit with her paint skills, the promise of more income and, frankly, more fun, being a very solid argument. He’d been doing it for practically his whole life, so would be a perfect chaperone into this newfound world.

“She came on the circuit for a little bit, and I remember looking at her face at the end of the first day when she had all this money in her hand,” Alexander laughed. “I said, that girl’s not going back.”

They’ve been running the circuit together since then, for about 10 years (not including the COVID summers). But it was during COVID that Alexandria rediscovered that childhood love of sculpture, having picked it back up on a whim to sculpt a special gift for a friend in Vancouver.

Word got out when he received his artisan, hand-sculpted Harry Potter wand adorned with a lion head, and she found herself taking orders.

“I started making creatures. And now I’m sculpting full time,” she said.

Her art now resides internationally through commissions she received since that first gifted piece, including in places such as the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

After the COVID years came and went and the world got back to festivals, the Alexes got back on the road in their trusty bus-turned-home. “We went hung-ho at it,” he said.

After a time, the Alexes began thinking about a space for their art. On one fortuitous afternoon they happened upon a For Lease sign in a small building on West Ave, and decided, what the hell, let’s call and see what the story is. The landlord who came to show the couple the small space was a total vibe, and they could immediately picture their work hanging on the walls. They signed the deal.

After running their small gallery for a short while, the building right next door, also owned by their landlord, became available — and a vision began formulating. What if their gallery was also an event space? What if people could make their own art there?

“This was the first space where we were like, let’s do something where people could come and do something that would be fun. Let’s have that be our business,” Alexandria said.

let’s do something where people could come and do something that would be fun.

Flash forward to November 2025, and West Side Studio, Gallery, and Spin Art was officially opened to the public. 

“You can come in here with your family, a party, a function, a date night,” Alexander said. “And you can go in there,” he points to the latest addition to the space, the Rage Paint Room. “We will set it up so you can go in there and do your own painting.”

In addition to splatter paint on canvas in the Rage Paint Room, and flow classes that show people how to create their one-of-a-kind canvases with a flow and blow technique, the studio also offers folks the opportunity to make their own “spin art” — with the assistance of a spin bike.

“I had these made,” said Alexander, gesturing to the former stationary exercise bikes turned art-making machines. “You come in, you put a canvas in, you put paint on the canvas, and you ride the bike. It’s a lot of fun.”

Alexander also works on a variety of mediums, including sketch pads, cardboard, and vinyl records, and can put together a class package for folks interested in learning more about working with these mediums. “I paint on anything. Records, walls, T-shirts, people’s bodies. I’m good with it all,” he said. He also provides caricature work in the space, and of course, one can purchase any of the original artwork that adorns the space.

“If you have a special thing that you want to do but you can’t find it anywhere or if you do find it and it’s too far away, call us and we will put it together for you,” he said. “And nobody can beat our prices.”

The Alexes aim to create an exceptional vibe for your party, so let them know if it’s a special occasion and they’ll up the ante, even providing desserts for anniversaries and adult date nights. On deck is free popcorn from the in-house popcorn machine, plus free water and coffee. The space is also BYOB if your girls’ night needs a little pinot with the paint. Got a favorite playlist or music artist? Let them know and they’ll curate the soundtrack. Or maybe your group are cinephiles? A large flatscreen is available for screenings. 

Both kids and adults are welcome to the space. Alexandria reminisced about a recent group of Girl Scouts they hosted, and about the neighbor kids who stop in on their way off the school bus every afternoon. 

“Art creates art. Art creates a smile,” she said. The confidence a child can gain from making something with their own hands and minds can help them go further in all of their learning throughout childhood. “It motivates them not just to draw again, it motivates them to run down that track at school faster or whatever it is they’re passionate about,” he added.

Musing about the path that’s brought them to this spot at 396 West Ave in Lockport’s West End, they acknowledge it’s a life not without stress, but the stress is manageable because they are doing what they love.

“What being an artist specifically comes down to is evaluating what your priorities are and what’s going to make you happy,” Alexandria said. 

What being an artist specifically comes down to is evaluating what your priorities are and what’s going to make you happy.

“If you want to be able to make a bunch of money — which is fine — and live comfortably in a nice house with a nice vehicle — and again, totally fine — doing something like this is going to be very difficult…but [that lifestyle] has never been a priority for me. I’d rather be able to sit down and watch a movie and sculpt and have a good day and go to bed happy.”

Follow the West Side Studio socials (IG & FB) and feel free to drop them a line to find out more about booking private parties or for their walk-in hours, and plan to make something real fun with friends or solo soon!

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West Side Studio, Gallery, and Spin Art | 396 West Ave., Lockport | (716) 313-7318 | westsidestudioart@gmail.com

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Written by Kristy Lock

My name is Kristy and I’m an American journalist, specializing in profile writing. I’ve told the stories of frenetic & fascinating people in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and my hometown of Western New York for nearly two decades. Feel free to drop me a line! I would love to hear your story sometime.

Photos by Kristy Lock.