Houston Llew
Houston Llew learned enameling in a poorly constructed leaning garage in Atlanta. He was unemployed in the middle of the great recession during a record- breaking hot summer. Through fortuitous circumstances, he befriended the master enamellist Zingaro, he shadowed the artist around his studio until he gave Houston the keys to enameling that would later evolve into his first works – Spiritiles.
For months he spent every waking hour over a kiln, experimenting, sketching, living on only “ramen and beer.” The only reason his art exists today is because he had no other option – no job to fall back on, no security other than what he could create himself. Tenacity keeps him going. When one thing doesn’t work, step back, retool, and try a new path.
He loves spitballing ideas and trying seemingly crazy things just to see if they work. By harnessing that constant experimentation, art evolves. That’s how it’s possible to create a dueling form of enameled imagery and with bending stories and quotes out of context into something entirely new… He calls it “design” but it’s something unnamed.
