My family is from The South. My grandmother's family helped settle the state of Florida. No "retire to Florida" interlopers here. I have never lived below the Mason Dixon Line myself, but The South is in my blood. Oddly, I have even discovered that most of my good friends hail from Texas originally. I may have been a Texan in a past life. The South intrigues and attracts me and were I not married to a staunch North Easterner (or "Nor-East-er"), I'd probably find myself living there eventually.
I would like to pretend that his work is like a truckload of college-educated, drunk rednecks shooting road signs at high speed, late at night, on a backwoods road. But in Alabama we actually have those, and, standing over his works, shooting shot after shot, Creel is anything but one of them.
...his selection of a non-traditional medium led many to connect his work to a particular Southern tradition: Creel was conveniently lumped in with people who carve animals out of tree stumps with chainsaws. "I don't see myself as a folk artist," he explains, "and although I have been mentioned as both an animal artist and a wildlife artist, that is really not the point either."
These works take time. This is not a 'fly-by-night-get-a-few-oo's-and-ah's' operation. It has taken him five years to complete six 4'x6' panels. No machine help here, Creel stands over the panels and shoots each shot himself. In 2008 he produced a sound installation (Shooting/Loading, 2008 - available on iTunes for $9.99 or on old school vinyl) to accompany Deweaponizing the Gun. Take a few moments to see what you bring to the work.
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