With more than a decade’s experience, he looks back on the artist he used to be and says, “I was in a sense overly technical because I neglected pursuing a free art form that had I done a lot earlier, it probably would have been to my benefit. I see people nowadays just starting off really getting into expressing their own particular style. In the past I suppose I wish I would have been a little bit more adventurous rather than honing down on technicalities. It is a double-edge sword. It improved my foundation.”

Wheeler’s portraiture shows attention to contrast and depth of field in striking ways. “I think people try to outline the portraits a little too much, put a hard edge, or they tend to make it real flat by adding a real soft gray without putting deep contrast for the darks and lights and having minimal value to the portrait. It could just reflect the individual style of an artist, but that’s not what I tend to do,” he said.

In 1995, Wheeler went to Europe and worked with Mario Barth in Graz, Austria, and it’s a period he calls one of his most important in the development of his craft. “Even though I was there a short while, I was able to work closely with him and see what a real veteran of the new modern renaissance he was at the time. I got a lot of tips and pointers from him, and being in Austria, I was able to loosen up and have more fun with the custom work. I developed that a whole lot,” he said, honing his knowledge about how machines ran to furthering his prowess in holding the machine, stretching the skin, and doing freehand drawing on the skin.