The image of the gun has been used by artists for decades. Its power and ability to destroy life is an intense symbolism artists regularly fall back on. Alabama artist Walton Creel attempts to deconstruct this theory and remove the power of the gun.
With a .22 caliber rifle instead of a paintbrush, Creel designs bullethole portraits of hunted animals onto white painted aluminum.
The statement on rural culture is implicit but the medium Creel uses brings up much more. The bullet holes from far look like computer pixels while up close, the woven proximity of them looks almost like needlepoint. Perhaps a statement on technology's influence on the art world. 
The exhibit, recently at the Coleman Center for the Arts in Alabama, just closed with a appropriately with a paintball event. 
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