A Modern Renaissance at Java Joe's

Jamie Thornley, 22, poses in front of his newly complete mural of the Virgin Mary at Java Joe's coffeehouse and seems to disappear before it. Whether it's because of the grand marbled-weight and sculptural dimension of the piece, or simply the innate ability of an artist to blend into his own creation is just one of the riddles Thornley presents.

Dressed in black, baggy clothes, he seems to blend into the environment, until scrunching up his sleeve and showing a kaleidoscopic mix of radiant colors and symbols tattooed the length of one of his arms. Covering his back is an unfinished portrait of Siddhartha, the originator of Buddhist thought.

Like his work, he's deceptively soft-spoken. The longer you engage either, the more they resonate. He's an entrepreneur, but lets his work do most of the cold-call toiling.

The iconographic piece, based on Michelangelo's "Pieta," is one of the first things customers notice when they come in, according to Java Joe's barista Alisha Kaskie.

"Everybody who comes in here comments on it," she says, looking at the airbrushed work and allowing it to cast a stunning smile onto her face. "I think it's brilliant."

While better known around town as an award-winning tattoo artist and co-owner of Tattoo Revolution on Deer Run Road, Thornley says his other great love is painting. Influences range from the aforementioned Renaissance sculptor/painter Michelangelo de Buonarroti to Jackson Pollock and the modern-primitive fine-art of former grafitti artist, Jean-Michel Basquait.

Thornley is no stranger to the much-maligned craft of grafitti, and says he got in trouble for a few "non-commissioned" pieces as a teenager.

Now reformed, Thornley says if he were ever to bomb (paint big pieces of grafitti without permission) again, he would "do something so cool that it would actually increase the value" of the building or wall. He sticks tight to his creed of being non-destructive.

When he worked in Las Vegas, he says he used to give discounts to guys getting gang art or swastikas covered over. "Those are the only things I won't tattoo," he says. "Any marks celebrating violence or hatred."

For the mural, Thornley chose to focus on the Virgin Mary's countenance as she mourns her dead son laying in her lap, an expression that has always been identified with redemption and a graceful joy.

Perhaps it came from the birth of Thornley's daughter, 3-month-old Lydia, an event which he calls, "The greatest thing that has ever happened to me."

"She makes me feel normal," he adds, also giving credit to his wife, Kara, for her energy work.

The piece took approximately four 6-hour shifts to complete and has the feeling that it was sculpted just as much as painted.

Thornley has every intention, and the support of owner John Davis, to cover the walls and ceilings of the coffee house with his work, limited only by his imagination.

It's a unique cross between two worlds, more than 500 years and thousands of miles away, but there may be some family precedent - Thornley can trace his ancestry back to cathedral builders in Palermo, Sicily. Perhaps his talent is atavistic after all.

"My dad and step-mom had always wondered where it was coming from," he laughs, noting both have always been really supportive of his career choice.

Thornley's studio, Tattoo Revolution, features an art gallery and is open every day except Tuesday, from noon until 10 p.m.

Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.