However, appreciators of his capricious creations often cannot resist putting a name to the face. “I call the one I bought ‘Kiss Me, I’m Beautiful’,” says Scottsdale collector Carleton Rosenburgh. He was compelled to view Carleton’s show because he and the artist share a common name. Rosenburgh describes the purchase—a decision made with his wife, Louise—as a polished stainless steel teapot with a porcelain handle and spout made to look like a pig. Two porcelain kitchen knobs bear painted images of pursed red lips.

A former roasting pan is the head, a vintage camera flash the nose and mouth, the left eye an old stop watch, and the right eye a candleholder.

“We’ve hung it in our kitchen, over our stovetop,” Rosenburgh says, adding that its appeal is its mischievousness. “Its a humorous piece, not a serious display,” he explains. The collector expects that his teapot pig one day will find its way into his daughter’s collection of fine porcelain teapots.

Phoenix resident Debbie Schwartz purchased one of Carleton’s “bedpan” works as a birthday gift for her husband. “It has green sprinkler heads for eyes and a large orange ice cream scoop for the nose,” she notes. It became more interesting to her once she identified the sprinkler heads and other components. It will fit perfectly into the family’s art collection, says Schwartz. “We have a great deal of whimsical, unusual art in our home.”

Schwartz went to es Posible with her mother, Patricia Dreiseszun, who also purchased several of Carleton’s works. One is for a 50th-wedding anniversary gift. The second, another “bedpan” piece intended for Schwartz and her husband, is an elephant with candlestick eyes and a trunk. While Carleton has been creating his faces for only a couple of years, their enthusiastic reception from an art-loving public is encouraging. His work resonates with men, women and children who range from 6-year-olds to grandparents. “My granddaughters love it. At home they’re always making things themselves once they see something I’m working on,” Carleton says. Although he owned an art gallery while attending college and took a sculpture course, he finds that his limited formal art training leaves him unencumbered by the restraints of process or technique.