TEXAN’S WORKS TO BE SHOWN AT TUSTIN GALLERY : ALLISON: BOLD IMAGES OF SOUTHWEST

It’s common for Dan Allison’s prints to be characterized as leading examples of contemporary Southwestern American art. One critic even excitedly described the Houston native’s work as “gorgeous Tex Mex.”

Besides living in the Lone Star state for much of his 34 years, Allison festoons his candy-colored prints with fantastic cacti, surreal cowboys, airborne arrows and other elements that might be seen as strictly regional symbols.

But don’t press the point with him. In his polite but determined drawl, he makes it clear that any such brand narrowly describes his art and aesthetic perspective.

“I think my work is vaguely influenced by Mexico and Texas, (but) a lot of the things I do don’t have anything to do with cowboy or Texas art,” said Allison, whose exhibition at the Chemers Gallery in Tustin opens today and continues through April 18.

“I think what I’m doing is more universal than that and uses things from various sources. Really, that ‘Tex Mex’ thing is just a convenient package, a label that doesn’t tell the whole story.”

The tag may leave him feeling a little uneasy, but it has undoubtedly helped Allison secure a reputation that goes beyond Texas’ borders, even the country’s borders. His prints have been the focus of major exhibitions on both coasts and recently were shown in Poland and Yugoslavia.

Allison acknowledges that their distinctive American flavor makes them attractive to curators who hope to present insights into our culture, but he dismisses any suggestion that they sum up the national or regional experience. What they do offer, he said, is a personal and often funny way of looking at that experience.

“There’s no doubt that humor is a theme. I think much of my work has a tongue-in-cheek comment on life,” he said. “I think people get a kick out of my stuff. Little kids love to go up to it, they want to touch it. . . . There’s definitely a playfulness there.”

But he’s quick to note that his prints are not merely visual jokes. Allison said he uses serious as well as comic symbols to generate responses from the viewer. Those symbols can get pretty eccentric, he conceded.

Take, for instance, “Si Fi Chi,” which was recently displayed in Poland. Two four-eyed desperadoes shoot it out with ray guns on a dreamy prairie while a Chinese woman gazes longingly at an automobile flying over the horizon.

Then there’s “St. Billy Bob,” which shows a steer with a man’s body (or is that a man with a steer’s head?) being crucified in a shower stall while holding an electric guitar. A faithful dog offers flowers from below.

Both are curious and cartoonish but also vaguely disturbing. As with most surreal art, it’s up to the individual to find a meaning, and that’s how Allison wants it. But he also wants to give his audience a frame of reference, so he chooses his symbols carefully.

“You want something recognizable so people will have a place to start and will find it (the work) accessible in some way,” he explained. “It’s important to me that I communicate” through the ciphers.

Besides their highly symbolic nature, Allison’s prints are distinguished by a palette of colors that span the spectrum. These aren’t blues, reds and greens; they’re electric blues, emergency reds and neon greens.

These trademark colors, which he achieves though his own variations on the aquatint process (he uses only one plate for printing colors instead of the three plates normally used), are essential in producing the vividness, or “magic,” as he calls it, of his imagery.

The hues also show an allegiance to Chagall, whom Allison acknowledges as his major influence. Besides Chagall’s bold colors, there’s also a sense of his composition in Allison’s work. The Russian artist’s floating lovers and barnyard animals are evoked, if only slightly, in some of Allison’s more romantic scenes.

“Besides the beautiful colors, his scenes always deal with people, (and there is) a very humanistic quality to his painting,” Allison noted. “There’s always strong emotion there, nothing is detached, and that interplay of human emotion draws me in.”

Allison said his own work has become simpler and more “full of heavy-duty feelings” in recent years. Where his earlier prints have a Pop Art quality with distinctive representational images, his more recent art is freer and slightly abstract. Broad swatches of color and looser outlines for his figures now dominate.

“I think people can still tell what’s going on, but the more basic images allow them to feel more,” he said. “That feeling is important. . . . I think visual art fills in between music and the written word. I hope my art fills in.”