Thomas Christopher Haag was born in Wichita, Kansas into a family as vast as the sea. He took chemistry and math classes for some reason at the University of Kansas but dropped out and started hitchhiking. An avid muralist, both commissioned and not, he has painted buildings in Oaxaca, Barcelona, Venice, Albuquerque, Varinasi, Bangkok, Rangoon, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland, and many other places, under the names "Detach," "Stove" and "El Pituitario."