And he does that on a near-weekly basis. Every other weekend for the past four months, the artist, a Florida native, comes to the Venice Beach boardwalk to sell his work: mostly heart-shaped pieces made from painted wood and resin compounds. Every time he does so, at least one person walks away with one of Turner's hearts, and every time that happens, that person's purchase reminds him why he decided to become an artist in the first place.

"The most rewarding thing is the people who come up and absolutely love you and cherish you for what you do," says Turner, "And you know, for a split second while they're kind of excited about what you do, you're kind of like a rock star, you know? I generally just love making things."

Turner started out working in construction back when he lived in Fort Lauderdale. The compound he uses to create his pieces is actually more often used to repair walls on construction sites.

Since those days, he's devised his own formula for this compound, using the end product to sculpt all his pieces in a process that takes four days or so, two of which are needed to let them bake under the sun. 

Sometimes his hearts cannot dry properly because it's too humid out. 

Sometimes the resin he uses reacts badly to the compound and paint, and the hearts will crack. 

But most of the time, Turner is pleased with the results.

"I've sold every piece I ever made," he says softly, lowering his gaze as if he's slightly embarrassed to admit this. His fingertips are smeared with green and white paint and his eyelids lightly speckled with glitter from the piece he just made and finished right there on the boardwalk. 

It sold almost immediately. 

"I wondered why I started making hearts subconsciously until just about a year ago, when I got a message on MySpace from the very first girl who broke my heart," Turner says.
"She said 'I can't believe your art,' because on the notes we used to pass to each other in the hallways, way back in junior high school, I used to draw her all these designs and from what she can remember, they're somewhat identical."

Before he started making these hearts, though, Turner built a series of clocks inspired by Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss and Salvador Dali. The first, titled 11 Clocks and also his first ever artistic endeavor, he modeled after a Salvador Dali poster crowded with images of melting pocket watches.  

Turner's eyes light up with nostalgia as he recalls staring at that poster hanging in his family's living room in Florida while listening to the radio. He explains that at that moment, as their grandfather clock starting chiming, Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" began to play as well. 

"It gave me goosebumps," he recalls. "I started sketching the pieces and the next day I bought a piece of aluminum sheet metal and made the bodies within that day...  I sold six of the clocks for a show and from then on I said, 'That's it, I'm going to be an artist forever now.'"
 
Eventually, Turner wants to move away from selling his art on the Venice Beach boardwalk to showing it in more galleries around Los Angeles and Orange County. 

The discussion regarding his list of future plans is momentarily interrupted as two women, their faces blackened with grime and visibly inebriated on some sort of substance, stumble past his space. The one on the left side nicks the corner of one of his works with a scuffed combat boot and apologizes profusely. Turner shrugs this off, says it's alright, and continues to share his long-term goals.

"I'd like to buy a school bus, travel the country and sell my artwork here and there," he says, "I plan to get into Art Basel in Miami, maybe next year... it's a big, big art festival with 3,500 artists from all over the world."

Turner one day hopes to create "humungous pieces", the kind cities will commission him to make and put up in public parks. His dream is to make a floor standing clock as tall as a three-story building. 

But for now, he's content to sell his hearts until the time is right and explains what it may take to "make it.".

"There are artists out there who do one piece a month and they're waiting tables or have someone to pay their bills for them, but honestly, if you want to make it, you've got to work harder than you would at a [9 to 5] job," Turner says.

"You've got to expose [your work] as much as possible," he says. 

"Whether it be at festivals, galleries, boardwalks... anywhere and everywhere you can put yourself out there, it's what you have to do. If you want to be really successful, just put yourself out there, 100 percent."