Displaying Zeal

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 8:45 a.m.

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on artists who have recently opened studios in downtown Las Vegas. On Wednesday, artist Dray was profiled.

What: gallery MTZ.

When: Noon to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Where: 1300 Casino Center Blvd., Suite 6.

Admission: Free.

Information: (702) 610-5718.

The final Lakers vs. Pistons game was on television. An unfinished painting sat on an easel in front of a plastic lawn chair, and two cats stared each other down in the yard outside his window.

As a train whistled a few blocks away, setting the tone for the early evening scene, Zeilman smiled and said, "Nice effect."

Zeilman is the most recent artist to settle into the Las Vegas Arts District in downtown Las Vegas. A few weeks ago he opened gallery MTZ ext door to artist Dray in the fourplex across the street from the Funk House.

On the walls of his studio a demonlike figure scowls, a wispy drunk catches his step and a teenage Zeilman is seen rebelliously in a retrospective self-portrait.

He's quiet. For all the talking he doesn't do, his artwork screams it.

"Any interpretation you have is the right one," Zeilman said, referring to his paintings, mostly acrylic on canvas.

This is Zeilman the artist. He's not all about selling, emulating or studying art. His paintings are colorful and emotional, portraying figures with disproportionate bodies, lopsided and enlarged eyes, exaggerated facial features and flame images. Some are abstract. Some are cartoonlike portraits. Others are barren landscapes under a burning sun.

"There's a dark tone," Zeilman said. "I'm angry. I'm like 34 years old. I'm not rich yet. It's the same old story. You get up, go to work, the world is kind of a (expletive) place."

Except with Zeilman, it's not the same old story.

Just after his high school graduation, while taking a trip to Texas to visit old friends, the new Navy recruit was told that his sister died in a car accident in Las Vegas.

"I was 18 and she was my only sibling," Zeilman said. "Three months later I was off to boot camp. I'm still kind of working through that. It's been a long struggle for all of us. It's a tough thing to deal with.

"As a kid we moved around a lot. You form a closeness with your sibling that you don't get to form with friends long term."

Looking around his studio, he added, "All this is coming out because I'm working with it."

A self-taught painter who didn't pick up the brush until 1997, Zeilman has shown his work in mixed exhibits around town. He's had a solo show at the Funk House, where owner Cindy Funkhouser created a studio space in her antique store to give exposure to new and unknown artists. His work has also been featured in 5ive Finger Miscount exhibits.

He met Dray one night while painting outside the Funk House at First Friday.

"I just ride their coattails," Zeilman said modestly. "You hitch on to whatever is happening that you can get involved with. It helps with this scene. If it was all wine and cheese I wouldn't be here.

"To me it's not first and foremost about selling. It's about presenting, letting people know there's a lot of art here."

But Zeilman has sold some of his work and earnestly appreciates interest, no matter the affluence of the buyer.

"The younger people, they were the ones putting out $5 to buy prints," Zeilman said, referring to this month's First Friday. "That almost means more. There's a lot competing for five bucks from a kid."

Some of Zeilman's paintings are a throwback to 1970s and early '80s album covers, and he says that his work is fueled by rock bands Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, Alice in Chains and Tool, among others.

Some of his work seems experimental. Some, such as two portraits of Salvador Dali and a few abstract paintings, are more polished.

A Vo-Tech High School graduate who focused mainly on graphic arts, Zeilman doesn't pay a lot of attention to other artists because he doesn't want it to influence his own voice.

The time he purchased a Van Gogh print ("Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette") was because, he said, it looked like a Metallica cover.

"That's where I'm from," Zeilman said. "I kind of almost don't fit into 5ive Finger because it's hip-hop intense and I'm the rock 'n' roll guy."

But, he said, "I feel like Dray is kind of a brother. And the guys in 5ive Finger Miscount. I'm kind of into that family thing. I will hang out here as long as it feels good.

"I usually come down here Saturday and Sunday. I can hear Dray's music, the beat of what's going on over there, and I know there's another artist working."

As far as his own family, he remains close with his parents and with his relatives who send encouragement to his Web site.

The day of this interview, Zeilman's mom, Barbara, and dad, Terry, stopped by the studio to drop off a bottle opener and a vacuum cleaner.

"Do you need cups?" Barbara asked through the screen while standing outside? "I've got some."

The day his studio was opening, Zeilman was working while his fiance, Jessica Chapman, and Barbara set up his studio, lunched outside at a patio table and mixed with area residents.

His mom is also becoming a fixture in the neighborhood.

"My mom actually sits in the gallery Wednesday to Friday," Zeilman said. If it was all wine and cheese I wouldn't be here."