About the Artist

Having first moved to New York in 1982 to pursue a career in the visual arts, and having completed a year of graduate work at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Salas-Humara found steady work with the Leo Castelli Gallery during the ‘80s Manhattan art boom. Citing as his heroes ‘50s minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly and Pop artist Jasper Johns, Salas-Humara’s early paintings were primarily large abstract color fields. His art career was cut short with the success of his band, the Silos, three years later.

In the early 2000s, Salas-Humara took up painting again after a hiatus of two decades. On a whim, he created several stylized, cartoon-like dog paintings as holiday gifts for his nieces and nephews. They became so popular that he was soon spending much of his free time painting commissioned dog portraits in his signature style for friends and fans. In 2005, he formed a company called WaltersDogs and began producing originals and prints for sale at shows, by mail-order and in music-oriented art galleries like Yard Dog in Austin, eventually expanding his product line to include apparel, accessories, bedding and stationery products.