Check Out Walter DuPriest’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Walter DuPriest.

Walter, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Art is a constant for me and always has been. I’ve been encouraged and afforded the opportunity to wear many different hats and pursue many other opportunities, both in my upbringing and as a professional. While many of those other pursuits are aspirational and transitory, art is involuntary and continual for me. In spite of circumstance, and never more so than right now, I can’t stop making art.

I graduated with a studio art degree from the University of Maryland in 2003. I bailed on an intended double-major, just missing my additional English degree. I came back home to participate in a couple of group shows as a painter and internships at Sadler Hudson and Anne Irwin. Internships I learned from, sure. But in retrospect, I didn’t truly appreciate and build upon those early opportunities. Admittedly, I was too scattered and preoccupied, working the register at a beloved used music shop and substitute teaching at my high school alma mater.

The Westminster Schools hired me as a full-time art teacher 2005-ish, and the rest is history. I met my wife at work, and we have two boys (12 and 14) who now attend the school. Somehow I’ve worked at Westminster for 21 years, always an art teacher, though I’ve embraced Middle School administration and added coaching to my repertoire (for over ten years now).

Baseball dad, football coach, Dean of students– these are the many different versions of me that have evolved over time, some unexpected, but all of them true. But art practice persists, regardless of where I find myself or what role I’m playing. Always. Whether juggling professional duties or enjoying my family, art is always happening. Even as I’ve grown in my family and my career, I’ve found a way to keep making and participating in various group shows, most recently at Notch 8 gallery (before it relocated to Portland).

I’m unwavering and faithful to my studio practice despite midlife aspirations and other obligations. I continue to use our annual art faculty show at school as a non-negotiable motivator to churn out new artwork every year, each August. Even as circumstances shift beneath my feet, I’m devout and loyal to my art making, preoccupied and invested in the process, poised for any creative opportunity that presents itself.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For me to talk about “struggle” would be inappropriate. My road is smooth. I’ve had so much support. My family is encouraging and accommodating. My parents and brother encouraged me growing-up, and now my wife and my boys give me the space and bandwidth I need to feed a seemingly insatiable hunger to be working. My creative road is a bit twisty and wandering, acquiring unanticipated parts for me to play as I’ve grown older– but all are responsibilities I’ve voluntarily chosen, pursued, and succeeded in. My job title has changed. My kids have gotten older, growing into their own obligations. My wife is impressive and accomplished. So ambition and obligation have certainly affected the way I currently make art…. But arguably for the better. I’m proud of that persistence and adaptability. Art finds a way. Sometimes the hindrance even helps, adding something intangible. Whether I’m found drawing sitting on the baseball bleachers on a Sunday morning, or secretly working during a Zoom meeting Tuesday afternoon– the art is coming out of me. Thanks to the method I’ve currently developed and invested in, I’m constantly doing real work all the time, and my current body of work is arguably my strongest ever; an unconventional approach that’s a direct result of adapting to life and career choices.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve been doing large-scale mural-drawings since Covid. Drawing installations, big pieces, which are very detailed and demanding. The time it takes to build a space is immeasurable. Hours and days and weeks– One page at a time. I plan large sections, big movements– on the floor at home in my little studio or using a big empty wall at school when time allows– all in preparation so I can take individual pages with me everywhere I go. Everywhere. 100, 200 pages or more, hung together to create a completely different space for a viewer to step into. A different, immersive vibe waiting for them in a gallery, that is the goal. Using interlocking 9 x 12 drawing pages. Simple, but I pour into each page, accumulating to affect. The response has been overwhelmingly, exceedingly positive. More than anything else I’ve done, these works evoke a reaction.

The imagery is accessible but elusive – obtusely and specifically referencing structure and architecture from sacred spaces / places of worship. The reference, however, is buried in biomechanical imagery, landscape drawing techniques, and repeated geometric forms. Through this, I try to create a sense of other that is also familiar. The art intends to transport the viewer elsewhere, but also resonates and references revered places people care about. I’m currently working on my fourth piece, which feels wild to say. The previous three have each taken two years to complete– I’m pushing to finish this current one in just a year. And this next one will have exposed areas of color for the first time. Previously the color has been subtle, living quietly beneath accumulated pen and ink. Working so large, color offers new possibilities but also presents a completely different set of problems to solve. We’ll see.

For whatever reason, I’ve always gravitated naturally towards drawing with repeated mark accumulation to try and build immersive, deep spaces on flat surfaces. Drawing in the margins of notebooks in high school, I only occasionally drew the heroes of the comic books I was reading. More often than not, my idle pen marks felt more like the detailed, background-style-work found in the corners of Lee/Williams panels– something that felt adjacent to both traditional drawing techniques and graphic novels. The discovery of artists like Gerhard and Bernie Wrightson and subsequent revelations legitimized my natural tendencies as a kid. Giving myself permission to fully-embrace what’s always been natural – it’s been rocket-fuel for my work and allowed me to make art with unprecedented focus, even (and especially) when I’m on-the-go. Though I was a pure-painter in school, my work on canvas has incorporated a lot of collaged drawings for depth and texture for nearly 20 years now. In the last five plus years, working with the murals, I’ve nearly abandoned conventional painting almost altogether. I’ll do a canvas-or-two-a-year, but I really can’t stop with the drawing right now. It just keeps coming. These installations keep evolving and growing in possibility and specificity.

Every time I finish a mural, I tell myself that’s it. No more. Because at the end of the making and the hanging of the work I’m exhausted. My most recent mural was 252 pages total. The 7th grade art class I solicited/forced to help with my de-install, my students approximated that I used 1,085 thumbtacks in the hanging process. It’s tedious and somewhat grueling. Yet I can’t stop doing it. And now I’m trying to incorporate a color palette inspired by photographs taken in Africa this past summer, which will inevitably teach me something new. The work will show me something else, likely pushing me to keep going, and going, and going. I doubt the work is done with me yet. My colleagues and students enjoy it and anticipate “the next one” each fall, which I appreciate. That said, I’d love to show this work somewhere in the city. In a gallery space off-campus, commercially. We’ll see.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
My obvious dislike is that my preoccupations and obligations hinder my ability to fully take advantage of our city as frequently as I’d like. Teaching and coaching and youth-sports-driving and whatnot. What I do love though, is that it the city is expanding and evolving and developing all the time. Whether the Beltline or any number of developments, Atlanta is a city that feels so very different than the one I grew up in. And affecting the surrounding areas as well, pop-up / satellite restaurants in the suburbs exposing folks to established mainstays in the city and enticing folks to venture across town.
At the end of each school year, we offer our students a MayATL alternative curriculum / specialized interest course. Encouraging the kids not only to get to know their city, but contextualizing Atlanta as a fertile foundation-in-waiting for their developing interests and passions. It’s ideal and inspiring. I’m passionate about live music, all kinds of music. I prioritize seeing live music, and I’m fortunate that my family understands, encourages and sometimes benefits from my passion. I love that seeing so many different shows, and different types of music takes me to so many different corners of town. And also the food. Love eating in Atlanta. Too much to keep track of an always somewhere new we want to try.

Pricing:

• DM my instagram for inquiries on individual pieces
• DM my IG to discuss potential installation display

Contact Info:

• Instagram: walter_dupriest_art
• Facebook: walter_dupriest_art