Houston Llew

I believe that meaningful art is about emotion. Thus, every Spiritile created reflects a piece of our story. These icons stretch our memory and bring to mind the people we love, the things we cherish, and the passions we pursue. When collected, Spiritiles become a montage of moments that make us smile, laugh, remember, and dare to dream.   I started enameling in a poorly constructed leaning garage in Atlanta.  I was unemployed in the middle of the great recession during a record breaking hot summer.  Through fortuitous circumstances, I befriended the master enamelist Zingaro, I shadowed the artist around his studio until he gave me the keys to enameling that would later evolve into my first works – Spiritiles.

     For months I spent every waking hour over a kiln, experimenting, sketching, living on only “ramen and beer”.  The only reason my art exists today is because I had no other option – no job to fall back on, no security other than what I could create myself. Tenacity keeps me going.  When one thing doesn’t work, step back, retool, and try a new path. I love 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… I call it “design” but it’s something unnamed. What pushes me forward is the uplifting thoughts and musings. This is the cornerstone of my work- creating art that uplifts, and brings a hopeful connection to life.

– houston