Dustin Wallace

Last Login 05/09/12

• Lubbock, TX
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I grew up in a small farm town called Spade, TX. It consisted mostly of a cotton gin, a school, a mechanic shop (my father's), a post office and several farmers trying to eek a living out of the very soil they lived on. There was only one stop sign in town. Spade was a place you probably went through to go somewhere else. The town still exists, but most people have moved away to find a life in another place, just as I did. I remember thinking when I was little that there must be something more, something else to find in this world. In order to keep myself entertained not only as resident of a small farm town, but also as an only child, I resorted to my imagination and creativity to keep me going. With a healthy dose of several classics such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and even Dino Riders, I had plenty to start my mind churning. Legos, Legions of Power, and Constructs were my first mediums as an artist. I would always build what was on the box, then quickly dismantle and combine them to make whatever my whimsy was at that point and time. At one point, I fancied myself an inventor and I was always making gizmos out of cardboard, duct tape, coat hanger wire, and masking tape. One might say that these were my second arsenal of mediums. I would always gear up for Halloween because it was so fun to pretend to be something else. Eventually, I started making my own masks and costumes out of the aforementioned mediums. As I grew up, I was always inspired by the truly scary monsters and creatures in the television shows and movies I watched. They were even in the video games I played. The bad guy in Mario is a reptilian creature with spikes on his back for crying out loud. These inspirations combined with living in the middle of nowhere made for a vivid imagination. I can remember being told to take the trash out after dark. We didn't have a dumpster, we took it out to a barrel to be hauled away, by us, at a later time. The trash barrel was outside the fence of our backyard. Beyond that was a pasture frequented by coyotes who stared at our house at night looking for food. Their eyes always glowed in the dark as they reflected the light from our kitchen window. I never had any run in's with the animals outside, but my imagination was filled with scary thoughts of what could be out there, beyond the dark. It took me several years to realize why I was so interested in those scary things of the night. Why obsess with the things I would be so afraid to face? What was so appealing about these slimy creatures that I would want to draw them and sculpt them even in my college years and beyond? It is only a guess, but I think I am trying to put a physical body on my own fears, whether they are actually the creatures in the field, or my worries in the real world. I am trying to put a face on my credit card debt, on death itself, or on the fear of having to work the same job for the rest of my life without accomplishing my dreams. If you combine this with a mechanical aesthetic which I am certain was inspired by my dad working as mechanic in Spade when I was a kid, you get a pretty good idea of my body of work and what it entails. As it is I only have about 3-4 hours a night to work and progress is slower than I would like it to be. The seemingly eternal artist's struggle, day job versus what you really want to do.