Cutting-edge artist

He uses saws as his canvas

Solinas enjoys the perspective saws lend to his art INTERACTIVE: Saw artist image gallery RELATED VIDEO Greg Lyon of CNN affiliate KRON interviews the artist Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO: John Berggruen Gallery - San Francisco

January 28, 1999

EMERYVILLE, California (CNN) -- Rico Solinas is more than a prolific painter. He's also an artist on the cutting edge. After all, he does some of his best work on saws.

His studio near San Francisco is filled with barrels of blank canvases. In this case, though, that means saws waiting to be transformed from hand tools to handiwork.

"It's such an interesting format, getting away from the square," Solinas told CNN affiliate KRON. "It lends itself to rounding out things. You get a whole different perspective."

With over 300 painted saws to his credit, Solinas gets his inspiration from street scenes and does his oil paintings on location. A completed series depicts the homes of fellow artists. In the works are saw paintings of the world's art museums.

Although his works sell at a San Francisco art gallery for $2,500 and up, Solinas has a steady job, too, at the city's Museum of Modern Art where he helps prepare exhibits.

Even on his lunch hour, the saw painter can't get away from art. He hops on his motorcycle, traveling throughout San Francisco to capture the city's neighborhoods in gouache, a type of opaque watercolor.

He's filled 152 sketchbooks with the quick-drying paintings. But it's saws that cut it for Solinas, separating this artist from the rest.

CNN affiliate KRON contributed to this report.