Bullet Point Pictures

If you see the amazing David S. Palmer at work, you will be looking at a contemporary artist, born 1953 in Knox Indiana.  Having studied at Ball State University in fine art, he moved to Laguna Bch California in 1976. He has since then, according to those that know him, acted out an existence a a true underground artist.

The latest of his innovative creations are testament to his being both a talented and a seasoned artist with a very daring and some might say cutting edge view of life. David was himself on hand to greete visitors to the Laguna Beach Lu Martin Galleries in early January, where his stunning new works are on show.

David is a low-relief sculptor, currently and controversially using spent bullets and a blow-torch to recreate images of famous people killed by  bullets from assassins – his “Fallen Heroes” series. The depictions of Abraham Lincoln and John Lennon are especially poignant.

John F. Kennedy and Tupac Shakur make up a quartet of strangely compelling  portraits in this highly unusual set of artworks, which you can, if you get close enough, see broken down into the individual  bullet casings, engraved 40 S&W to signify.40-caliber Smith & Wessons.

David has no gun of his own,  but is neither for or against ownership of them by others. It appears that he wants to show how guns prevail in US society and culture, through his art. Though he has now, at 58, moved on to less emotional topics, he continues to create portraits of famous people by using bullet shells.

He says that he chose to use this medium serve his purpose simply  because  they evoke  blatant and emotionally charged responses, bullets used worldwide to help build or destroy dreams, and his wish is that viewers will feel the agony, as well as the miracle of creativity.

David firmly believes that loftiest pioneering efforts of men are manifestly hard to portray, the surface of his art hard just like the theme, and he feels it fitting that the shadows of lines and furrows seen in the faces at hand were created through the heat of a torch, giving a purifying strength to his works, and proving that every pioneering idea comes with a high price-tag. His art is truly brilliant.