Allison "Hueman" Torneros is an artist who doesn't mind breaking out of her comfort zone. The Los Angeles-based painter blends the beautiful and the grotesque and often works without a plan. She dominates two worlds, bringing her unique style onto the streets with massive murals or covering galleries in powerful canvases. Whether it's a collaboration with Nike, a mural for Diddy and Revolt TV, a wall 90-feet wide in San Francisco, or a reddit AMA, Hueman seems to approach each project with the same passion and emotion as she searches for "a happy medium."
We connected with Hueman and asked her to talk about her most important projects. She explained her process, her growth as an artist, and what her fans should be on the lookout for in the near future. Check out our Portfolio Review: Hueman Tells the Stories Behind Her Colorful, Fragmented Portraits.
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Allison "Hueman" Torneros is an artist who doesn't mind breaking out of her comfort zone. The Los Angeles-based painter blends the beautiful and the grotesque and often works without a plan. She dominates two worlds, bringing her unique style onto the streets with massive murals or covering galleries in powerful canvases. Whether it's a collaboration with Nike, a mural for Diddy and Revolt TV, a wall 90-feet wide in San Francisco, or a reddit AMA, Hueman seems to approach each project with the same passion and emotion as she searches for "a happy medium."
We connected with Hueman and asked her to talk about her most important projects. She explained her process, her growth as an artist, and what her fans should be on the lookout for in the near future. Check out our Portfolio Review: Hueman Tells the Stories Behind Her Colorful, Fragmented Portraits.
RELATED: 15 Women Who Are Killing It in Street Art Right Now
RELATED: 15 Street Artists to Watch in 2014
My process
"About 90% of the time when I paint, I like to 'freestyle.' I'll paint an abstract piece off the top of my head and then find a face in the abstraction. The word for this is 'pareidolia,' when you see faces in places where they aren't. Some people see faces in clouds or in a stain on the wall. I'll find lips or a pair of eyes then build the rest of the piece around it. Sometimes I'll see a whole figure."
Nike x Kobe Bryant
"I was approached by Nike to paint a portrait of Kobe, inspired by his 81-point game as well as the release of the Kobe I shoe. I wanted to capture his energy in such a surreal moment in time."
Check out our interview with Hueman about this collaboration here.
Being
"My friend Todd commissioned me to paint a portrait of his girlfriend. She has the most amazing green, hypnotic eyes. He's a photographer, and he sent me a whole bunch of photos for reference, more than I knew what to do with. I couldn't pick just one to work off of, so I combined two of my favorites to create a surreal portrait."
Beast
"I painted this for the cover of LA Canvas magazine. I was the first female to be featured on their cover. I like to paint lips in different expressions, and 80 percent of the time they're modeled after my own. This one in particular was intense, aggressive, and a little cocky. I'm usually pretty chill, very mellow, but I do have a fiery, feisty side to me, and I wanted to show people that."
Revolt TV
"I got the opportunity to paint the Studio A hallway at Revolt TV, Diddy's new network. The hallway had so many walls and angles, and I got to make that my creative playground. I wanted to create something that was disorienting and to play with space and dimension, something that I don't usually get to do when I'm painting on one flat surface. My design was inspired by the above lighting fixtures.
"This was my first monochromatic mural installation, and it was nice to take a break from all the color. When you look at the installation from certain standpoints, the shapes come together and form a fluid piece that covers multiple walls. I played with a lot of optical illusions. Diddy came in more than halfway through completion and had me change a few things (in typical Diddy style), but in the end it turned out looking great."
Berlin
"Last summer I took a trip to Europe and painted in almost every city I visited. It was also my first time traveling anywhere solo. Berlin wasn't a part of my plan, but I heard so many good things about it that I decided to go. On my last morning there, I wandered around looking for a few more walls to get up on before leaving town. I found this one with the broken windows up top and painted a face, and I sort of imagined that her scream was powerful enough to break glass."
London
"After I left Berlin, I went straight to London and painted this wall in Shoreditch. People told me that there used to be a beautiful, detailed mural on the big wall right next to mine, but it was recently buffed over and covered with a message that said, 'JUST LOOK AT THIS,' in plain black letters on a white background. I don't like being told what to do, so I painted this woman next to it...looking away in the opposite direction."
Urduja, San Francisco
"I painted this 90x20-foot wall on the side of the Ian Ross Gallery. It's been my biggest wall to date. It was also my first time painting on corrugated metal and my first time operating a scissor lift. The piece is named Urduja Warrior Princess after a legendary warrior princess in the Philippines. The red on her eyes reminds me of war paint. Sometimes when I paint a big wall it's like I'm conquering a beast."
Revolting Youth
"When I painted this, I had in mind themes of naiveté and young rebellion. This was one of my favorite color schemes. It's located in the Arts District of Los Angeles."
Ritual
"Sometimes the most powerful pieces are the ones that come out of nowhere, without effort. I painted this in less than an hour, and it's still one of my favorite pieces. It's a woman with water being poured over her face as if she's being baptized, so I named it Ritual. This inspired my solo project by the same name."
"Ritual," Think Tank Gallery, Los Angeles
"I'm intrigued by other artists' spaces and their creative rituals, so for one month I went on a whole bunch of studio visits, observing artists of different disciplines (musicians, singers, producers, dancers, painters, actors) in their habitats. After studying their rituals, I embarked on my own ritual and spent nine days at Think Tank Gallery, where I painted an entirely free-styled mural installation on every wall of the 6,000-square-foot warehouse space.
"I collaborated with some of my favorite artists, including graffiti artist Vyal. I invited my friend Brandon, a wood craftsman, to do his own interpretation of the Ritual theme, so he built a Mayan pyramid slide in the middle of the gallery. It was amazing. During the opening night people were playing on the structure, even skateboarding off of it. I'm looking forward to making 'Ritual' an ongoing project, and will be doing another one this year."
Landfall
"I was working on this in the studio when Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. I released this as a print on 1xRUN, which sold out, and the proceeds went to UNICEF to benefit the victims."
Drunk In Luv
"This is my latest piece. Perhaps I may have listened to one too many Beyoncé, 'Drunk In Love' remixes. Maybe I was in a nostalgic mood, who knows, but Drunk In Luv is the title. I made this for the upcoming "Laluzapalooza" show at La Luz De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, which opens March 7. I love this piece because of all the juxtapositions of texture, the balance of straight edges vs. flowing lines, cloudy forms and solid negative space."
The City
"I painted The City in 2006. Stylistically, this was the first time I began to play with the whole idea of creating an abstract piece and letting a face emerge from the background, and also I think this is when hair became a big theme for me. I have offers from people interested in buying it, but I won't give it up because it holds a lot of weight for me. My brother died at 21 years old in a car wreck, and at the time I was 14. When I was a little girl, I would see him leave to go out with his friends, and when he'd come home, I'd bug him about where he went. He'd answer 'Somewhere over the rainbow.' He said one day he'd take me there, and I believed him. This piece is a self portrait, that city over the rainbow that I always imagined he'd bring me to.
