Win Wallace

Win Wallace was born in South Carolina and is currently based in Lockhart, Texas. His recent practice focuses on pencil, conte, and charcoal portraits, as well as ink drawings. Since high school, Wallace has played in bands and created numerous flyers for underground punk and noise rock shows. Over the years, he has made posters for bands like the Melvins, Neurosis, Sleep, Helios Creed, The Jesus Lizard, DMBQ, Animal Collective, Scratch Acid, The Dead Kennedys, and many others. He moved to Austin in the mid-1990s to study drawing at the University of Texas. His drawings are influenced by history, art history, dreams, nature, and pathos. The fictional portraits illuminate the unique and ephemeral beauty of the individual as an integrated part of the natural world. Wallace has exhibited his work extensively in Texas, throughout the United States, and internationally. Win draws every day.


Artist Statement

"I make drawings on paper with simple materials. Through scale and detail, the work strives for realism while disregarding any photographic weight of that word. Beginning with the familiar construction of classical portraiture, I draw fictitious individuals—characters that are as rooted in art history as they are nestled among the flora and fauna of the natural world. This sense of interconnectedness to our surroundings, along with our past and present, seems so unfortunately out of step in the modern era. We hurtle forward, allowing technological advancements to disavow us of such notions. The discomfort of this inconsistency is the foundation for drawing something that celebrates inimitable, flawed, and fleeting beauty. The full ecstatic bloom of a Bearded Iris only lasts a few days, which isn’t truly so very different from our own time here. I labor to depict every leaf and blade of grass with the same determination as the formal subject of all my work, because all of life endures the same cycle of flowering, faltering, and finally fading away."


www.winwallacefineart.com

What is your first memory of creating?

It's definitely hard to remember a time when I wasn’t making something. My earliest memories of actual drawings are probably spaceships that looked more like rickety trash cans in kindergarten. However, my first real art teacher, Sudie Lea O’Connor, got me started drawing still lifes and portraits when I was about seven. She showed us that making art was about seeing, beyond just the whimsical things we draw as kids. She made us feel like art was something real and important in the world. She has sadly passed away, but I like to mention her often in interviews because those who give us that formative spark early on—whether they are teachers or family members—are crucial and so often unsung.


What is your relationship to your medium? What draws you to it?

I like the directness of drawing. It's the source; even if someone is making a painting or a sculpture, everything usually starts with a drawing. Into my mid-twenties, I was trying to be a painter until a friend pointed out that my detailed preparatory drawings seemed to be where my attention really was, while the paintings that followed seemed more like mechanical reproductions. It was such an obvious revelation in retrospect because I had to admit that drawing was the part I enjoyed most and felt most connected to. As easy as that realization was, it was a bit worrisome because making "fine art" was often associated with painting. But drawing feels natural; the materials are simple.


What is the main thing you hope your audience takes away from your art?

For the most part, I would like folks to feel free to take away whatever they want from my work. My pieces are made on a natural life-size scale. The viewer should feel like they are meeting a real, albeit fictional, individual. In that way, the drawing can have a living persona of its own. Directing folks too much about what to think about any piece seems to rob it of its own life. I like the idea of people having their own personal relationship with any piece that speaks to them. As a place to start, my work is about the beautiful, unique, and very ephemeral nature of being alive—whether human, animal, or plant.


Tell us about a challenge you overcame last year.

I feel very lucky because my challenges last year were mostly creative and economic. Making it through another year doing art always seems miraculous. Completing two solo shows in one year was hectic, as my pieces are all time-consuming. I would prefer not to have to do that again, though I’ve said that before. I can’t complain about having so many great opportunities.


What is your main goal or resolution this year in terms of your art practice?

My main goal for this year is simply to continue staying focused, keep working, and keep trying to get better.