The real shock comes when you meet Hovland. He's just like any other student except - even more ordinary. No distinguishing haircut, tattoos, piercings or even style for that matter. He just blends right in.
His paintings on the other hand do not. Vivid colors depict fetal pigs with police hats, crosses with death's cloaks, piles of fecal matter and numerous phallic symbols.
"I just like using identifiable symbols to get people's attention and then desecrating them to maintain peoples attention ... but maybe it has to do with taking things that mean a lot to people and poking fun at them," Hovland said.
He's an atheist with a cynical attitude towards politics. This may be due to the fact that both of his parents were socialists in
college and when he was born. His father, who Hovland especially looks up to, is still active in the Socialist Workers Party.
Hovland paints anywhere from 2-14 hours a day, but he never feels like he's doing enough. This is not how his life has always been. Less than six months ago he was an electricians apprentice waking up at 4:00 a.m. everyday putting in eight hours as a blue collar worker before he decided to go back to school.
He had spent two years at San Jose State University before moving back to Long Beach. Ultimately, the reason for his return was that his problems with drugs and alcohol that had started back in high school could no longer be ignored.
"I was completly miserable," Hovland said. "Drinking and doing whatever drugs I could get was the most important thing until a year and a half ago."
Luckily, Hovland started attending Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and has been able to stay sober and pursue his goals. Before he was an art student, Hovland started out doing street art or graffiti, also known as tagging.
"Tagging makes sense when you're young becuase when you're young, you're usually afriad to show any type of personality that is outside of the norm or outside of what is considered cool," said Hovland.
After seven years of tagging, Hovland was arrested in a train yard in Mira Loma and put on house arrest for three months. He has stopped tagging since. When asked if he misses it he said:
"I guess the rush of it. It's a lot of fun going out in the night hopping fences, running across freeways. It's kind of like when you're a little kid, climbing trees, like hide and seek, like illegal hide and seek. And then you get to see your stuff the next day if they haven't buffed it already."
Now that all the trouble seems to be behind him. He's started working on a digital arts certificate at Golden West College until he can transfer to Cal State Long Beach and major in illustration.
A balcony atttached to Hovlands room doubles as his studio. Paints and empty vente Starbucks cups and diet coke cans are everywhere, some holding dirty paint brushes.This balcony is his sanctuary where he spends the most time, painting, drawing and smoking Camel Filters.
Like most artists Hovland is a bit reclusive, with a small fistful of friends — most of who are also artists.
His idol ever since his first year at San Jose State is Robert Crumb, the infamous cartoonist. But don't tell Hovland that his work looks like Crumbs, because that makes him paranoid that he's copying his style too much.
Some of Hovlands biggest accomplishment include selling t-shirt designs to Tony Hawk Skateboard company, having one of his designs printed as the main logo for a new skateshop in Cerrito called the Skae Attic and recieving his first show at the Royal Cup coffee shop in Long Beach. His painting are still on display at the Royal Cup which is located on the corner of 10th and Redondo through January 31st.
But he doesn't consider any of these things to be his greatest accomplishments.
"I've improved a lot. That's what I get the most enjoyment out of, is improving," said Hovland. "I guess my biggest accomplishment is deciding to do it."
