Only a small group of artists can effectively get into the portrait business, which requires an adequate depiction of emotions, moods, and fleeting moments. On the living room walls of a Marion home are portraits made by a self taught artist, who lives there with his wife. His best work is "Faces," a montage of an American tap dancer, an actor a scientist, the composite between three famous comedians, the traditional cast members of a long running science fiction TV series, a former TV reporter, various rock stars, athletes and entertainers, and his friends. He favors grabbing shots from videos, which give him a wider range of faces to choose from. The montage is a tribute to the people who influenced him as he worked on it for a year and a half.
Other portraits hanging on his walls are large individual renditions of a lead singer from Babes in Toyland, a Russian gymnast and singer songwriter. He favors pencil, graphite, and charcoal for his works. He decided to add to his abilities by learning to use conte crayon and colored pencils. He and his Japanese wife, a Kobe native, were the subjects of his first venture with colored pencils. He said that he did a kind of composite between traditional American drawing and Japanese wood block print. Building from their close up wedding photograph at City Hall in December 1996, he added both personal and Japanese symbolisms.
One such enhancement was the addition of their three cats, who were not there at the real wedding. The artist drew one cat's face to resemble a mask from a Japanese opera believed to chase away evil spirits. The second cat is rendered in a position that supposedly brings good luck.
Another embellishment is their kimono dress in the drawing. He covers the drawing of his wife in the kikyo, a flower that is her matriarchal symbol. Outside the room, past the third cat that is behind the vertical blinds, is a gingko tree. The University of Iowa has a tree that inspired the gingko, a sing of longevity.
In fact, the couple first collaborated on this 1997 drawing. He said his wife helped him a lot in composing and checking out ideas. The drawing has high sentimental value for them, said the wife. He would be delighted if he could conquer landscapes, as long as he can insert the figures he likes to draw so much.
A traditional exhibit is not needed for his art, as his pieces have made their way into and on the cover of books. The book editor caught wind of his artwork from a staff member. Then the lady editor emailed him saying she is impressed by his self taught talent, his sense of color, shading, composition, his ability to combine portrait study with architectural elements in thought provoking and surprising ways, and the intelligence, humor and complexity behind his work. He has come a long way from his childhood drawings of action heroes and rock stars. Whatever he wants to draw, he can. He explains that he creates a drawing by thinking what he can add or change about a scene that would otherwise be just a photograph.
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