Chip is a photographer, an international public street artist and activist who worked as a physician on the Navajo nation between Monument Valley and The Grand Canyon in Arizona for 36 years retiring in 2023. In 2012 he formed the Painted Desert Project – a community project which resulted in a constellation of murals across the Navajo Nation painted by reservation artists and artists from  all over the world.

As an artist, a doctor and community activist he has committed himself to the vital health of the Navajo nation and the planet earth in general. 

Thomas was a 2018 recipient of a Kindle Project gift and in 2020 was one of a handful of artists chosen by the UN to recognize the 75th anniversary of the UN's founding.