Many Different Portraits

There are artists who prefer not to do portraits, being unable to capture emotions, moods, or fleeting moments that register on faces for mere seconds. But not this self taught artist whose portraits hang on the living room walls in the Marion home he shares with his wife. He put together the faces 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 for a single montage called "Faces". The first step he takes is grabbing stills from videos, which gives him surprising results. He filled a year and a half of rendering faces of people who influenced him onto the single montage.

Individual portraits of the lead singer from Babes in Toyland, a Russian gymnast, and a songwriter decorate the other walls. His usual working tools are pencil, graphite, and charcoal. His toolbox was filled out by conte crayon and then colored pencils. The subjects of his first work in colored pencil were himself and his wife, a native of Kobe, Japan. He said that he did a kind of composite between traditional American drawing and Japanese wood block print. He uses personal and Japanese symbols to further decorate his version of their wedding photograph, taken at City Hall in December 1996.

These symbols included their three cats, which were not present at the actual wedding. He used a mask from Japanese opera, believed to protect against evil spirits, as the face of one of the cats. Good luck comes to those in a certain position, and he draws the second cat in it.

He dressed himself and his wife in kimonos in the drawing. Her matriarchal symbol is a flower called the kikyo, which he uses to decorate her with. The third cat sits behind the vertical blinds outside the room, where he placed a gingko tree. The link to the gingko, a sing of longevity, is a tree the artist once saw at the University of Iowa.

This 1997 drawing marks the first time the couple worked together. 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 wishes to master landscapes, adding his favorite figures into them.

Four of his pieces have been published in a book, one of which serves as the cover, but he has not had his own exhibit. It was a staff member who presented his work to the book editor. The artist received an email of commendation by the editor on his technique, unique combination of portraiture and architecture, and expression of complexity with humor. Since his childhood days, when all he drew were action heroes and rock stars, he has gone very far. Whatever he wants to draw, he can. He describes the process as a way of taking a photograph, in which the artist has the freedom to move things around.

By: Daniell

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