Stilhouse Communication Design, Graphic Design, Web Design and Web Development

My experiences living as a U.S. soldier in Europe, living in Hawai'i, and originating from Houston Texas has molded the visual content of my work, by fusing imagery, color, and concepts adopted from multiple cultures.
The human face is a favorite subject and has been an ongoing theme of mine for some time now. My early works portrayed intimate moments of family members and close friends which allowed me a deeper emotional connection with the piece. These portraits introduced me to the structure of the human face, and enabled me to explore them further in their proportion, color, and emotion. We adopt certain mannerisms, expressions, and modes of thought from the people we surround ourselves with, and filter these traits into our own character.
My latest works are based on fictitious people called "Teeth Faces", who portray the crude side of humanity while also depicting the plight of the soldier. "Teeth Faces" developed over many years and do not symbolize any one person, but instead describe the various sides of anyone and everyone. The idea of showing teeth is very important to me and they are a very unique part of our bodies. Our teeth are the only bones in our skeleton that are exposed, they fall out when were young to be replaced by new ones, they also fall out when were old to be replaced by fabricated ones. Teeth are the grinding mechanism enabling us the access to solid food and can also be used as a source of identification.
The structure and form of the human face is very familiar to everyone and it is the most innate image drawn from my memory. In a sense depicting these faces is a very honest portrayal of who I am. The structural planes of the face are interlocked by patterns and rugged paint application. This application of paint is a metaphor for the tremendous amount of expressions we put our faces through. Aberrant color is used with liberties to convey a multitude of emotions, although each portrait holds only one physical expression.
These fictitious persons are a result of the act of painting and are not preconceived. I usually start with an underpainting with casein or acrylic building up the values, and scale of the skull. Then I begin to apply thick and thin layers, of paint, transparent and opaque that respond to the planes of the form. Once the form is recognized it must be deconstructed with impulsive chaos. This chaos becomes the music of the work opening the painting back up to possibilities and opportunities. The underlying structure of the form is never lost, but often very altered, and subordinate to the physical properties of the paint.