August.2011: Exhibit of tattoo-inspired art opens at Howl
Andy Howl has spent two years tattooing skulls, snakes and roses on customers at his downtown Fort Myers art gallery/tattoo parlor.So it makes sense that tattoos finally found their way into Howl's fine art, too.
"I'm focusing on a single image," Howl explains. "That, to me, is the most important thing: The power of a single image."
An exhibit of Howl's tattoo-inspired drawings opens tonight during Art Walk and continues through Aug. 30. It's Howl's first solo show since his gallery opened in April 2009.
The 20-or-so pieces include subjects commonly found at U.S. tattoo parlors - many of them with strong mythic or symbolic resonance: Japanese koi and fearsome-looking "Oni" demons, a praying Day of the Dead skeleton, a water snake, a tiger, a skeletal cherry blossom tree and a rose covered in thorns.
"I gravitate to images that are either about change or death," he says.
Howl sees tattoos as an extension of his longtime love of comic-book art. Both forms rely on bold lines, simple images and filled-in colors.
Howl graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1998 with a degree in sequential art. But by 1995, he'd already started exploring his budding interest in tattoos.
A buddy gave him his first tattoo using a needle-like art tool. The small X on Howl's left arm symbolizes being "X'ed out, not a part of society."
"It was done in my dorm room," Howl says and laughs. "It was NOT professional at all."
Since then, he's gotten plenty of professional tattoos. They cover his legs, arms and elsewhere on his body, including skull armbands, a phoenix silhouette and a pair of "Eddies" (the zombie mascot for metal band Iron Maiden).
By 2002, he'd started tattooing people, himself.
Howl makes his stylized, tattoo-inspired drawings using colored pencil on watercolor paper. And he doesn't bother erasing the initial sketch underneath.
Most artists erase those guidelines after the finished drawing takes shape, but Howl leaves them in.
"I'm kind of going the other way," he says. "I'm saying, 'Here is the process. Here's how I got from A to B.'"
Howl says he's never tattooed these exact images on customers at Howl Gallery. But koi, snakes and skulls are all common requests.
"I've done variations of all this stuff on people," he says. "But these are all-original designs."
Originally posted on News-Press.com
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011108050334
