Art attack: Jim Houser's ‘Mere Inches’

‘Hexes,’ acrylic and collage on canvas, 24" x 20", 2007

How to be Jim Houser: (1) Start your career as security guard in Philadelphia, and doodle all through your 8-hour overnight shifts. (2) Start painting on any available surface, even if it means tearing apart your basement stairs and covering them in pop colors and stream-of-consciousness visual associations. (3) Start interning for Shepard Fairey and learn the ropes of being a working artist in this modern world. (4) Marry someone who keeps pushing you to paint more; develop your style of clean but cluttered figures and words. (5) Survive some personal tragedies. (6) Keep painting.

Catch the opening reception of Jim Houser's latest work at Merry Karnowsky Gallery on Sat., May 3, 8 p.m.-11 p.m.