"Meekrowahveh II" Painting

I paint people. This is my way of capturing the spirits of myself, friends and strangers alike in the increasingly chaotic world around us all. These abstract portraits show the true strength in the commonality of people and push back against division, hatred and ignorance.

These works are abstract portraits in latex, acrylic and spray paint. Most of his structural and decorative framing is created from scratch. Some of the substrates used are cotton painter drop cloths, fiberboard, cardboard, as well as old unwanted paintings.

The works are composed with dense layering and a loose juxtaposition of application techniques. The paint application most often utilizes makeshift scrapers and rarely uses brushes. Leftover framing wood or plastic scrapers created from household items like leftover butter or yogurt containers are common applicators. The combination of sharp linear edges and random marks creates his look and feel.

Much of the latex paint is mis-tinted box store house paint that has been returned to the store and resold as unwanted inventory, injecting randomness into the works with these premixed colors. The acrylic offers a wider blending palette and spray paint provides the modern context.

I grew up in a family with a malignant narcissist father and struggled socially and as a young teen. Art and music was a perfect escape, as I spent decades drawing, designing, painting and playing the guitar.

Painting became a primary focus from the 2000s on. After moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009, I joined a neighborhood studio art tour in 2015 and began to show and sell works to the public. Over the next nine years, I sold about eighty pieces. I became immersed in studying abstraction and refining his style over the next decade.

In 2024, I moved to Lagos, Portugal, where I paint on the balcony of a small one bedroom apartment overlooking the ocean. The change in venue has led to several adaptations in all aspects of the painting process.