Alexander P. Huerta is a pillar at The Arts Factory in Downtown Las Vegas, and also quite prolific. Just talking to him, one gets the sense that he lives, breathes and devours art. His work feels raw, vulnerable and like he is trying to purge his life out onto a canvas.

If you take a visit to the 18b Arts District, you can bet that you will find Alex upstairs in his studio working on a new painting, collaborating with his arts collective: 3 Bad Sheep, body painting at an art event, painting a mural around the 18b Arts District, giving an arts talk for the community, or promoting a fellow Las Vegas Artist. He is an interesting character and has an inspiring story to tell about how he fell into a life of art-making (rather late in life) and he's never shy to share. If you ever get the chance, give him a visit.

Alexander P. Huerta was born in San Leandro, CA. on October 14, 1966 and lived in the Bay Area until 1983. At the age of 16 he moved to Las Vegas with his mom and younger brother. He graduated high school in 1985 and went directly into the work force, never thinking about art or being an artist. He once said he thought more about sports, ladies and booze until his life took a dramatic turn in 1995.

An Excerpt from The Las Vegas SEVEN, by Jarret Keene, July 28th, 2011:

"Huerta knows about elevation. A graduate of Clark High School, he worked for 15 years in the Harrah’s race and sports book before hitting “rock bottom.” “My poor decisions and drinking led me to a bad place,” he confesses. “I had an epiphany; my whole thought-process changed. God showed me I could be an artist. I started painting every day, and I’ve been climbing upward ever since.”

Before his decision to paint, Huerta had little formal training, just half-remembered art classes he had taken in high school, mainly as a way of picking up girls. Then he got serious: He bought supplies and taught himself.

Huerta began selling his artworks at First Friday in 2002. Emboldened by his fledgling success, Huerta started painting murals as a way to help local businesses deal with graffiti.

“The murals are just my way of letting people know that there’s art here in Vegas,” he says. “That there are artists waiting to be discovered, explored.”

When he’s not painting murals, Huerta uses oils and acrylics to paint abstract images and Sharpie ink pens to create pointillist images. In 2008, he sold a pointillist image on canvas to a collector, the proceeds of which enabled him to secure his own studio, PeaceNart, in the Arts Factory. He also founded and now helps organize Bar & Bistro’s Painters and Poets Jam, which he calls “the best-kept secret in Vegas.” He continues to collaborate and put on shows with his collective 3 Bad Sheep. And he conducted a July 23 live body-painting session at the Cosmopolitan as part of ARTrageous Vegas, an event put on by the LGBT Center of Southern Nevada."