Artists can turn almost anything into a canvas, and Colin Hoffman prefers spray paint cans. Once they’re empty, that’s when he brings them to life.<\/p>\n
“I was, like, I have all these cans, what do I do with all these?” Hoffman said.<\/p>\n
In his San Bruno studio, part workshop, part wonderland, those empty cans don’t end up in the trash. They’re transformed into “Killer Cans,” brightly colored monsters with big personalities and toothy grins that are shaking up the art world.<\/p>\n
“They kind of ward off evil spirits,” Hoffman said. “I don’t see them as evil themselves. I see myself as a protector.”<\/p>\n
And maybe that’s not by accident. Hoffman, who served as a Marine from 1991 to 1993, was forced to retire after an injury and was later diagnosed with PTSD.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t really discussed it with anybody for 30 years,” he said. “My kids don’t know about it. My mom and all of them, when they were alive, didn’t know about it. It’s just not something I’ve been able to talk about.”<\/p>\n
More than 6,400 veterans died by suicide in 2022, according to the most recent figures<\/a> from the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n Ironically, his monsters, he said, help drown out the demons in his own head.<\/p>\n “I realized art was kind of like a time machine, like time just disappeared, and not just time, but my problems,” Hoffman said.<\/p>\n