Meet the Artists

Louis A. Cano

Louis Alexander Cano was born in El Paso, Tx in 1984. At the age of five the cano family moved to Austin Texas which Louis came to think of as an artful and colorful city. Louis graduated from Pflugerville high school and then soon after attended Austin Community College enrolled in art courses, graduating with an Associate’s degree in art.

Living in this artistic town of Austin, he discovered his love of art. Working with fellow artist Laura Lopez Cano he developed a passion and respect for the arts including painting, sculpture, woodcarving and print making.

His artwork reflects a deep passion for the old experts such as Picasso, Salvador Dali, Rembrandt, Frida Kahlo as well as the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Andy Warhol. Louis’ Work encompasses the ideals of a person who lived in an artistic environment which has shaped his life as well as his style of art. Louis’ brushstrokes satisfy his own creative sense of style incorporating bright colors which represent his own emotions while painting.

Today Louis lives in Houston, Texas working on his art and developing a following of collectors from across the country. He is an exceptional person who has spent over a decade perfecting his craft and continues to make art to this day.

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Artist Statement

My artwork is a combination of original artwork inspired by the works of the old masters, based on abstract art of the last 200 years. Works based on many different painters such as Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dali, and other painters of the past used as inspiration to create my own set of artworks which derives from many of their own works. A lot of my influences come from many of the old painters who I have seen in my youth and while I mostly take inspiration from many of many of the old masters, often I get inspired by many modern artists as well as other pieces I see in galleries and museums, on the streets and even stores and in other places across the city.

Many of my artworks use broad strokes with splatters and splashes of color representing both emotions with the movement in each stroke. The movements used in the paintings represent the use of expression and a style which represents a profound respect for the works of the old experts while creating a unique style of my own. My work has led me on a path of self-discovery allowing me not only to express myself but to also to push myself to becoming a better artist expressing myself and has allowed me to explore not only myself as an artist but also as a person. Being an artist has afforded me a lot of different opportunities such as allowing me to make lots of contact over my career.

Working with my mother as her assistant for so many years has provided me with many different and excellent opportunities to participate in different shows, attend different events such as the mana program, las compadres organization or the Latinos now organization which has helped me expand my art to many other places and even allowed me to do things I didn’t think I could such as work with many of these organizations and groups do murals for the heritage society, the juvenile and Mexican American schools and attend events for the university of new Mexico.

 

Many of my works while I was attending Tsu was a combination of many works consisting of art I have seen over the year, with my paintings being the world seen through the lens of an autistic person and my take on places and events from my childhood as well as many of the things I’ve seen in my life done mostly in a surreal fashion while many of my abstract pieces are a representation of thoughts and ideas that goes on inside of an autistic mind with the splashes of colors and the shapes which represent the thoughts and ideas that goes through mind of an autistic person on a daily basis. Many of my paintings share a common theme of artwork seen through the eyes of an autistic person with many of my artworks using a wide variety of colors and shapes acting as the visual representation of how I see the world and my works reflect that and when I’m using abstract or surreal art to express my works they both show the same thing when I am painting giving the audience a point of view which they may not have seen before giving them a glimpse into my mind while showing the places and people I have seen throughout my life.  

In conclusion my art is unique in that it shows artwork from the mind of a person who is different and represents my art from a unique perspective and gives me a chance to express myself in a certain way.

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Javen Harris

My name is Javen Harris, and I was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi on October 21, 1999. Throughout my early years I grew to have a love for television. I would constantly sit indoors watching new cartoons from various platforms. When I got to Middle School that's when I started getting into art. I made friends with other artists and they gave me the inspiration to start drawing myself and this decision kick-started my passion for art. Being a very meticulous person I found myself focusing a lot when it came to my art. I spent my time studying the reference to make sure that I got the smallest details. This attention to detail has helped me progress in art.

During my time in middle school is when I got into anime. My friend group at the time got me to watch it and it ended up being an instant hit for me. The first artist that I gained inspiration from was Hayao Miyazaki who was well known for his Studio Ghibli films. Watching those films sparked a feeling of peace within myself and I knew at that point that art was what I wanted to pursue.

In High School, the art department was lacking severely and it was until my Junior year of highschool that my interest grew. My teacher at the time told us about all of the careers that art could produce and that the stereotype of a starving artist was a myth. My love for comics, video games and anime are what gave me the drive to go for digital art.

Attending Texas Southern University and becoming an art major has done nothing but teach me new techniques and grow my skills as an artist. With skills in different mediums I am able to produce my ideas in various mediums rather than just digital. This was pressured by the fact that Texas Southern is a traditional art school so essentially I am a self taught digital artist. Through online tutorials and applying what I learned in my classes I am making steady progress to reach my goals.

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Jillian Hill

My passion for creating art was always prevalent throughout my life. From a very young age, I picked up on drawing and sketching. I started tracing out characters from Anime books. It was all until one day my mom took my sisters and I to this warehouse one Saturday. This warehouse we went to was giving away free paint to the general public. It was mostly interior paint for houses, but while walking around I stumbled across some crafting paint. I picked it up and took it home, at that moment I knew I wanted to start exploring painting. In my adolescent years, I had officially made painting a hobby of mine. Even though it was a hobby, I saw myself getting better, and my family and peers also saw my progress as well. I was often told that I should pursue art as a career. I thought about it here and there but never gave it too much thought. When I got into high school I was on track to go into the medical field to pursue pharmacy and that’s what I did. When I originally came to Texas Southern, I came as a Pre Pharmacy major. I ended up switching over to art, because that was my true passion. Ever since I made the switch to pursue art education, I’ve been happier with school and how my future was going to look. I, like many people, have faced obstacles and it hasn’t been an easy journey, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than art.

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Artist Statement

I have had the opportunity to create at least one artwork in just about every medium, but I primarily enjoy painting as my focused medium. Most of my paintings are a reflection of me, or things that I like or see. I typically like to paint portraits and women. I personally believe that there is a lot to appreciate in the features of a woman. Collectively, we are beautiful, strong, independent, and determined. It is also something that I instantly liked to draw from a young age, and since then I’ve just stuck with that idea of drawing portraits of a female figure. I also like to paint a lot of black women, because representation is very important to me. As a young African American woman in the 21st century, there are many people who believe that black women do not fit the typical beauty standards. It is said that if you're thin with a lighter complexion and long hair that is tameable, you're beautiful. I believe that black women are beautiful and I like to show that in my work. There is so much to appreciate about us. Most of the black women that I paint are randomly made up characters that represent my experience as black woman or their just aesthetically pleasing characters that I like making for fun. I would best describe my artwork as feminine, colorful, and eye-catching. With my colorful pieces, I like to let loose and have fun with those. I usually would use flat colors and a black outline to define the shapes in the picture. My backgrounds are basic as well, because I like the central focus on the picture to be what the viewer is seeing. A lot of my inspiration comes from comic books, pop art, and anime. While I love to express myself with bright colors, I have a newly found desire to create monochromatic artworks. Painting monochromatic pieces is something that I’ve just recently started doing, and I come to appreciate it because it has introduced me to a new style that I plan to continue to use. My monochromatic pieces also show more emotion, and tell their own stories separately from my colorful pieces.

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Clement Thompson

I am a ceramic artist who works in different styles of ceramic art. I like to create ceramic sculpture, tea pots, maquette sculptures, I sell my ceramic work. I have shown in group and solo exhibitions experience working in exhibitions including my own , working with other artists and professors or mentor one of them being Professor name is. Jesse Sifuentes in the next four years I want to open my own ceramic shop and studio in the future after obtaining my master’s degree.

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