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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ar tist emerges

Sober a year, he returns to art

Brian Houghton’s work is as seriously alternative as he is. It’s industrial, futuristic and very thought-provoking. Here he displays a piece called “Stagtoplasm.” (Dan Pelle)
Jennifer Larue, Jlarue99@Hotmail.Com Jennifer Larue

Looking at Brian Houghton’s body of artwork, one might surmise that his imagination resides in a crude yet futuristic world where Tina Turner reigns over the Thunder Dome and bones, chains, gas masks and obsolete mechanics dress inhabitants and the surrounding landscape.

Some of his mask pieces are fashioned after Dr. Schnabel von Rom’s mask that was shaped like a crow (a bird thought to be pest proof) and stuffed with a concoction of purifying herbs to protect him from the plague in the 17th century.

The whole “mask thing” has a lot of connotations including references to pollution or the artist’s own struggles with insecurities.

“All the gas masks I have in my pieces really don’t have any deeper meaning that I can consciously think of, I have always liked them and they have sort of always represented an ominous almost robotic quality,” he said. “I think maybe at one point I used the masks to mask insecurities and self-consciousness.”

Houghton was born in Billings. At 11, he came to Spokane when his father was offered a job in the area. Houghton attended Lewis and Clark High School, where he was quickly discouraged in art.

“It was futile, really,” he said, “I saw it as a sort of oxymoron; an artist should not be labeled and caged.” His work even contains the representation of “cages” with wires strung across some pieces, separating the viewer from the subjects.

After high school, he worked odd jobs and took a dark dive into addiction when, in his constant search for his next fix, nothing else mattered. Now, he is just over a year sober and creating art has become his comfort. Using spray paint and markers on cardboard, he created his first piece about six months ago. Since then, he has created a large body of work.

“In the beginning, it was about letting all this stuff out. It was raw emotional energy,” he explained. “That energy will never be completely harnessed but it’s more focused now.”

His mixed-media pieces include acrylic, latex, spray paint, charcoal, markers, colored pencils, glow gel, wire and the occasional bike part or bullet casing on plywood, foam board, heavy paper and even a vintage desk sidewall. Fascinated with anatomy and physiology, Houghton illustrates bones and muscles into his portraits of draped figures, some who wear gas masks. One of his newest pieces, called “Stagtoplasm,” is the depiction of a stag. “A stag, in some cultures, is a symbol of nature and beauty,” he said, “I’ve added a Chinese background and death smog representing over population and massive industrial pollution.”

Houghton has exhibited at Terrain and the Checkerboard Tavern. Currently, you can see his work at the Globe Bar and Grill, 204 N. Division St., and at Spokane Vintage Warehouse, 2226 E. Riverside Ave., where he also sells jewelry made from bones, glass vials, crystals, keys, bullet casings, brass and wire – crudely futuristic but not so farfetched. In Mad Max’s world, they killed over scarce resources; we simply argue over it.

The Verve is a weekly feature celebrating the arts. If you know an  artist, dancer, actor, musician, photographer, band or singer, contact correspondent Jennifer LaRue by email jlarue99@hotmail.com.