Tom Quinn 's comment on Visual Artists: Would You Change Your Name?

When I first started out as a professional artist, I signed my paintings "T.C. Quinn", even though I've never liked people who go by their initials; it only makes me curious about what their REAL name is. The main reason I used my initials was because there already is a much more famous artist named Thomas Quinn, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. "American Artist" magazine once did a cover story on him, including a photo of his studio. They even showed the street sign that told all their readership exactly which street corner he lived on.
But when I painted my first mural, the news media referred to me as "Tom Quinn", so I decided to go by the name I'm used to. I figured there was enough difference between "Tom" and "Thomas" to avoid confusion. After all, the author of "Look Homeward, Angel" was billed as "Thomas Wolfe" while the author of "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is known as "Tom Wolfe", and nobody gets THEM confused (although it always seemed to me that the former writer was more like a "Tom" and the latter more of a "Thomas").
Since I got my FASO website, I've gotten more client contacts from people who thought I was "Thomas Quinn" than anyone else. You'd think one look at my paintings would tell them that he and I are as different as Jerry Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis, but somehow it doesn't. I always reply that the artist they want is "Thomas Quinn", and I give them his home address. It may seem like an invasion of privacy, but he didn't seem to mind when it was published in "American Artist". Besides, if "American Artist" ever did a story about ME, I'd be glad to let them print my home address if I thought it would get me more clients.