My Art. Why Not Prints?:
People constantly ask me why I don’t capitalize on making prints of my art, or using canvas so that I can mass-produce my pieces. It’s simple. My metal-grinding process creates a 3dimensional piece of art, which is impossible to duplicate through screen-printing. When I make a piece of art, I’m not really making “a piece.” I’m listening to what the metal wants to become. If you tune out all the noise of the world, and stare into that piece of metal, you can hear it screaming. Screaming so hard to be revealed…to manifest itself. Every puff of air through my airbrush, and every swish of the brush, is performed by becoming one with the piece and uncovering the beauty of what’s been there all along. People ask how can I see what a piece of metal wants to become, and I’m honestly confused. I don’t understand how someone can’t.
Bio/ back story:
I knew I had an obsession with painting when I found myself in the high school spray booth at two in the morning on a school holiday. I was in the spray booth painting up a storm on a custom paint job on a classic car. How my teacher agreed to that I’ll never know. My car painting turned into concurrent enrollment in college car painting. My car-painting education led me into a 6 year internship with a German master painter. Under his guidance, I was able to learn and master the art of old world gold leafing, pin striping, every type of top coat and finish, and everything in between. We worked on high profile estates, well recognized landmarks, temples and many more prominent buildings. The mentorship led me too running custom paint shops where we created custom low-rider and motorcycle paint jobs.
My love of working with metal, the techniques of laying gold leaf, strategically using the airbrush, and putting a top coat allows me to create a top-finish that looks like’s it encased in glass. It becomes a piece of art that has so much depth you feel like you can reach your hand into it and stir it around.
Somewhere along the journey my passion became a calling. A realization happened. My art was no longer something that I did, but something I can’t not do.