Starting in the Summer of 2011, I began working at a Gun Store and Shooting Range that my uncle owned. Despite being brought up deep in the heart of gun totting' Texas, my experience with firearms prior to this was limited to a red ryder BB gun and one dove hunting trip where a friend armed me with a single shot 410 shotgun. The experience of working at the range was eye opening in a number of ways. Like many people who did not grow up around firearms, shooting, or hunting, I had formed an opinion about guns and gun owner's without really ever understanding anything about them. It became clear to me throughout my first summer working there that the gun is only a tool in the hands of whoever is holding it.We all know what a gun is capable of. Just looking at one makes us visualize our own portrait of what it could be used for. A means to obtain food, a facilitator of crime, the keys to freedom, the scourge of mankind, and the voice of revolutions could all be used to describe a gun. A lone symbol that has the power to draw such emotion even without seeing it in action. It's a very powerful message for a small piece of metal. A single, tangible object capable of evoking so many varying thoughts and feelings.
It was this idea (and being surrounded by mountains of firearm related objects) that led me to my next project. Gradually over the the next two and a half years that thought manifested itself in the form of brass bullet casings arranged into a "canvas".
After many trails and errors...the finished "Canvas. The actually painting ended up being the easy part
I chose a portrait of Comanche chief Quanah Parker to don my bullets. A man I felt was very aware of the power of firearms ,but not confined to violence.
I calculated it took about 3000 .40cal bullets casings to make this portrait.
