The Art of Doing How Tony and Tracey Mose Built ESOM

by Cayman Clevenger

THE BOW OF A CARGO SHIP, a metaphorical skyscraper, glides down Tchoupitoulas, casting a shadow over the unassuming warehouse Tony and Tracey Mose share as a studio space. Inside, I step into the imaginative world of ESOM, which comes together in many different media—a creative cornucopia of artistic instruments, all caps off and ready to go.

The allure of Tony and Tracey Mose is not just in the vibrant canvases or the sculptural silhouettes they create. The allure lies in everything—every stroke, every space, every exchange of the artists infused with belief—belief in beauty, hard work, each other, and the calling that birthed ESOM, an art brand and love story rolled into one.

Tony Mose, known as ESOM in the art world, creates paintings that don’t just hang—they command space. His style blends spontaneity and structure, mystery and movement, with a distinct voice rooted in both abstraction and raw figuration. Long before his work filled galleries on Julia, Royal, and Magazine Streets, Tony was a boy in Cottonport, Louisiana, sketching figures in kindergarten while classmates drew smiley faces. He won his first art contest in fourth grade with a gasoline-thinned house paint piece that smelled so strong it became “interactive art,” as he now jokes. Even through a Gulf War deployment and a stint managing a Banana Republic, Tony never let go of his dream. Along the way, he sharpened his skills in perspective, proportion, and purpose, building the foundation for the artist he is today.

At a turning point in his life, Tony Mose was flying home to Louisiana to set up a new Banana Republic store in Baton Rouge, but was dreaming of leaping headfirst into an art career. A missed flight landed him next to a clairvoyant, who invited him to ask any question. Jokingly, he asked, “What should I name my business?” Without knowing his name, she replied, “ESOM!”—a moment of magic that changed everything.

Despite his skepticism, Tony found himself drawn to the clairvoyant’s words, probing further with cautious interest, asking her where he would find what he needed to start his career. She responded obliquely, her words layered with elusive meaning: “In a forest of crayons.” At the time, he took her predictions in stride, doubting the clairvoyant’s abilities and perhaps sanity. But, days later, walking through an unassuming shed in Baton Rouge, he discovered hundreds of old doors, stacked and sorted by color— pink, blue, orange, green—a rainbow in wood, seared into his memory. A “forest of crayons,” the color-coded door became his first canvas. ESOM’s first pieces were sold out of a truck bed in New Orleans, for $300 a piece, with every last one spoken for. One of these original works still graces the wall of the esteemed restaurant GW Fins to this day.

Tony’s figures—long-limbed, often crowned, drenched in bold, unrepentant strokes—are less portraits than declarations. Tony explains: “Everyone’s the king or queen of their own world. So I give them their crown.” To the casual observer, that symbol is reminiscent of Basquiat. But for Tony, the origin is far more personal: it’s Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, the book he couldn’t afford as a boy but carried in his mind ever since. That crown, sketched by a child with big dreams and oil-stained fingers, still sits atop his work today.

His figurative works have a transcendent quality. Tony’s works have an individual character by mixing media and reaching for a feeling or emotion rather than painting from a reference. “I paint what I see and what I feel—and for that, I need everything within reach. It’s a dance with materials: spray paint, charcoal, dirty brushes, acrylic paint, lids open, scraps off the floor—whatever the moment calls for,” he notes.

Tony shares his life, studio, and spotlight with his wife, Tracey Mose. Though ESOM graces the front of their galleries, Tracey is a force all her own. A photographer, painter, and creative director in every sense, Tracey’s work hums with the structure and soul of the city. Her “Urban Expressionism” series transforms New Orleans itself into a mosaic of form and feeling. Telephone wires, iron grates, and water meter covers allow her to see rhythm and movement in the mundane, extracting the architecture of emotion from the background of daily life. She photographs the streets obsessively—walkabouts, she calls them—and from those images emerge compositions that feel like jazz: improvised, kinetic, and deeply rooted in place.

Tracey’s abstract works have earned her a loyal following of contemporary art enthusiasts—decorators, designers, and fans alike. “My work is about how the old and new live together,” Tracey says. If the city can do it—if these buildings can learn to coexist— maybe we can, too.”

One piece, an all-black canvas layered with matte and gloss, was inspired by a moment at dusk in the Quarter. A street sweeper had sprayed a crow, and its wings, suddenly slick with water and refracted light, revealed glints of violet, copper, and oil-slick blue. “I didn’t want to paint the bird,” Tracey says, “I wanted to paint the moment.” And she did.

Tony and Tracey make more than paintings. They build worlds and provide the work that has become the background of cherished memories in homes around the country. Their collaborative pieces blend Tracey’s structural eye and abstraction with Tony’s figurative boldness and attention to detail. The result is hybrid work that’s deeply intimate, deeply New Orleans, and utterly their own.

For all the passion poured into their art, perhaps the true secret of their success is what surrounds it: that belief. “Fifty percent of art,” Tony says, “is believing in yourself.” The rest, he shared, is “getting it into the world,” which is where Tracey shines. With Tracey at the helm, ESOM is a masterclass in the often difficult art business. She has helped turn ESOM into more than a studio or a brand—it’s a movement and a belief system. Every client becomes part of the story.

In all their success, Tracey and Tony know the value of giving back to their community. They are quietly mentoring a generation of young creatives. Their greatest pride is watching those around them grow into better artists, better business people, better humans.

In the end, ESOM feels like a vocation, and like the art, Tony and Tracey’s greater calling seems to be to share their art, and the joy it brings, with as many folks as possible.

This dynamic duo’s work can be viewed at their galleries on Royal, Julia, and Magazine, located in the heart of New Orleans’ art centers.