Walton Creel Creates Artwork By Shooting Bullets

Walton Creel is an American artist who uses a .22 caliber rifle given to him by his father as a present to create artwork by shooting complicated patterns on painted sheets of aluminum. Creel calls it “deweaponizing”. “My main goal was to take the destructive power away from the gun. To manipulate the gun into a tool of creation and use it in a way that removed it from its original purpose,” says the artist.

The images used in this series are of southern wildlife – animals which are traditionally hunted - and include: Deer, Owl, Bunny, Opossum, Squirrel, and Wren. When asked how others view his work Creel states, "Whatever view a person already holds on guns is the view they project onto me. If they love guns and think gun ownership is a God-given right, then they see my work as reinforcement of that view. If they think guns should be banned, they see my work as an ironic protest.”