DAYTON, Minn. — Before the sun comes up, you'll find Tom Payne hard at work in his shop in Dayton, Minnesota.
"I wake up at 3:30 in the morning to do this,” Payne laughs. Every morning, Payne works on his fish.
“I call it ‘Dead Fish Art,” Payne laughs.
The fish are made with a wooden backing as the foundation and then Payne adds metal accents to fill in the eyes, fins and scales.
“I have a friend who finds scrap metal for me and it’s amazing what he finds,” Payne says.
Every piece of art is made by hand.
Payne says some pieces take a few hours to build, but some take months.
“That piece over there took me three months,” Payne says.
The artwork takes extra time because making art isn’t Payne’s full-time job.
“I drive an armored truck,” Payne laughs. “That’s what I do during the day, and I do this art before work when I have time to do it.”
Payne says he tries to find time to focus on his art after he spent several years focusing on his family.
“I got my art degree and then got married. I had three kids, and I had to put my art on the back burner,” Payne says.
Art became even more of an afterthought when Payne’s wife, Danette, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"When my wife passed away in 2004, I was here raising three girls all by myself — little girls. My youngest was 4."
His youngest, Sami, says Payne was an amazing dad growing up, but once she and her sisters moved out of the house everyone thought it was time for Payne to finally do something for himself.
“I got remarried again 13 years ago and my wife said you should really do your art,” Payne says.
"We all loved my dad's art,” Sami adds.
“He was so amazing to us growing up and my sisters and I really wanted to reciprocate that and support our dad.”
Payne started working on his fish art about 13 years ago.
“I was lucky if I sold one or two a year to a friend or an acquaintance,” Payne says.
He tried selling his artwork at local art fairs, but he would only sell a few prints and the occasional sculpture, and sometimes he wouldn’t sell any art at all.
"He's just not reaching the right people,” Sami says.
That's when she had an idea.
"She's like, 'Dad, you should get on TikTok.' I'm like, 'Me? On TikTok?'"
Together with his daughters, Payne posted his first video in mid-November. He posted a few more videos and quickly developed a following of fans.
Within their first few days, the TikTok channel brought in nearly 5 million views.
“Within the first 24 hours I’d say he had maybe 400 comments from people saying they loved his art and wanted to buy it,” Sami says. "I got 60 orders in the last week,” Payne says.
And they're not just buying the art. Sami says most of the buyers are drawn in by her father’s kindness and unique personality.
“People see that genuine part in him, and they see that warmness in him,” Sami says.
In the first week, Payne had already sold a lot of his built-up inventory of fish art.
That’s why he’s in the shop early each morning to create new pieces of art — he doesn’t know how long this sudden fame will last.
"I want to shine as long as I can,” Payne laughs. "I can't believe it. It's like a dream. Like, I dreamt these things, and now they're coming to pass. Wow."
Payne and his daughters are working on a new website to sell his artwork.
If you're interested in Payne's art, follow him on TikTok at @deadfishart.