Today we’d like to introduce you to Will DeShazo.
Hi Will, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My life began in a small rural town in Texas. My family lived out in the country on the land my father grew up on. Much of my time was spent wandering around outside among the trees having faux magical rituals and catching toads. Connecting with others was never my strongest ability. When in places with others I always felt like some kind of alien specimen that spoke an entirely different language. It was as if I had to always translate my thoughts in ways to make sense to others. Because of this I tended to spend a lot of my time alone. Fortunately my mind consisted of a very vivid imagination to keep me company when I needed it. My family was always pretty poor so that didn’t allow for the extravagances that were actually necessities. I rarely visited the dentist, which as a child I was thrilled about because I was terrified of the dentist. Due to this lack of visitation however I spent much of my childhood and early adulthood with pretty severe cavities and rotting teeth. These issues led to living life with chronic tooth pain, I had to rearrange my life around what would or wouldn’t cause more pain. Since I was scared of the dentist I never shared this pain with anyone so I dealt with crumbling teeth and throbbing gums in silence. When in these moments of chronic suffering I was fortunate enough to have art as an outlet. I have been expressing myself through making art from a very early age as it aided me in finding my purpose in life despite all of my suffering. I have always used creating as a way to make something beautiful out of my pain.
After graduating high school I decided to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Tx. I was excited about experiencing life in a different location but I soon realized that I moved from one small town in Texas to another. Life was not as horrible in this town as I thought it may be. I made many new friends and a little community for myself. However there were still some small town ideologies that I faced. There was always a fear of having certain slurs yelled at me just based on how I was dressed and expressed myself. I had to make myself more palatable for other people so I wouldn’t face violence. Unfortunately the watered down version of myself was still too strange for people and I did experience people staring into my soul or yelling at me. My community of friends around me however were very beneficial for my experience. There was a little pocket of people like myself who all supported each other and wanted the best for each other. I am very lucky to have met some wonderful people during this time of my life. These people came in clutch when in December of 2021 my niece whom I had grown up with took her own life. This tragedy tore us all apart and I immediately moved back in with my parents for a few months. Losing her truly altered me in ways that are too existential to be able to express. Growing up she would always join me on my adventures in the woods and we seemed to understand each other the best in our family. I prided myself on being a mentor for her to find ways to express who she was through her fashion and art. She would send me texts including photos of her drawings and ask me for critiques and I happily obliged. The resulting grief created a tremendous shift in my life and it became much harder just to exist and be a member of society. All I wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep all of my pain away. Fortunately I had art as a way to work through this part of my life. I earned my BFA in December of 2023 and decided I wanted to experience more from this life.
Upon graduating college I decided to move to downtown Fort Worth. I already had a community here as I used to galavant around town going to art events as a teenager. Luckily for me, moving to a larger city allowed for me to express myself how I wanted to in spaces that not only allowed for it but applauded it. I began going out to goth clubs in Dallas dressed in my giant platforms, full face of dramatic makeup, and whatever garment of clothing I could make in the time leading up to going out. Spaces like this are so important because they foster the creativity of the people who seek them out. I now have a community of people who support me and celebrate my successes which is so vital for a happy and healthy life. I am genuinely so fortunate to now live somewhere where I can be myself without fear of facing violence. I am also in a time of my life where I am non- stop making art and participating in shows throughout the DFW area. Motivation for a brighter future is finally making it’s way into my mind and I am always working really hard to achieve my big goals. Going out a lot has helped me hone my networking abilities and I find that I am beginning to fine tune the parts of myself that can lead me to success. I still have to deal with the darkness in my life that results from trauma but it is all an ebb and flow. I may have issues with grief and anxiety that show up and grab me by the throat but that will always subside and I am at peace with that. I am very excited to see what my future may offer for me and my career!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been an easy journey for me to get where I am now. I have faced many tragedies in my life and my purpose for mentioning all of it when I discuss my life is because all of these obstacles shape who I am as a person. Had I not experienced so much dental pain as a child I wouldn’t have begun to have a perspective of existential dread at such an early age and I wouldn’t be making the kind of work I make now. If I didn’t lose someone I was close to in a tragedy I wouldn’t feel like I have something or someone to succeed for. Having to suppress my self expression has only made me yearn to be more open and vulnerable with the world because I feel like I owe it to the younger scared version of myself. All of these hurdles in my life have trained me to become the most honest form of myself. I still have to battle the mental repercussions of my trauma everyday as I have to keep being motivated enough to live the life I want and make the art I need to. Because of all of the things I have to work around I can kind of come off as pretty intense to other people. I definitely understand this perspective of myself and I would probably find myself to be really intense if I was someone else. This has caused me to experience a lot of self doubt and imposter syndrome. Pushing myself to live fully authentically is a huge struggle because there will always be the fear of how other people will see me or treat me. Being true to yourself is not an easy road but it is the happiest option in the long run! I like to see myself as a radical optimist in the face of tragedy. My personal mantra is that I spin gold out of straw. I take the darkest moments in my life and I turn them into a beacon for others experiencing the same situations.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a visual artist! I work in many different mediums that include painting, sculpture, textile arts, photography, printmaking, ceramics, and digital media. For most of my time making art I have been a painter. After going to college I was allowed a space to express myself through other mediums that I had always wanted to but never really had access to. All of my work discusses the topics that I have previously discussed about my life by way of metaphor and satire. It is difficult to say why I make art because it is something that has always been a part of my life. Why does the wind blow? Why do birds chirp? But the main goal I have when making my art is to give the audience an experience that they walk away with. I want the viewer to be face to face with my experiences and leave with a new perspective on life. I use my art to escape the tragedies I have faced and get to a higher point where they seem so much more miniscule in comparison to where I was before I made the work. For my graduation show in college I decided to create a giant sculptural installation that immortalized the memory of my dear niece. The central part of the show was a larger than life scale sculpture of my niece transforming into a tree made of clay, a welded steel armature, paper, and drywall. The importance of the tree transformation is that it is a reference to the story of Daphne from Greek mythology as it is similar to my niece’s story, this reference makes it so that what she went through is only a subtle part of her story. This scul;pture of her is laying in an elaborately painted coffin covered in orchids and comets. Surrounding this is a group of objects I made that share little moments of my relationship with her. One of these objects is a pair of ceramic platform boots also covered in orchids and comets. These boots represent the final gift I had planned to give her for Christmas which was to be her first pair of platforms. The iconography of orchids and comets that make an appearance throughout all of my work are symbols that represent both of us, her being a comet and me being an orchid. All of the other objects ranged from ceramic plates glazed with her portrait to containers in the shape of mating frogs or resting beetles. This show was well received by many of my peers and friends which I am very thankful for because I was petrified by the thought of my intentions of making this show being distorted. I am most proud of this show because making it forced me to go through my grieving process and learn to be grateful for life again. The work I make now is pretty varied in their mediums. I primarily work with textiles whether that be machine embroidery, quilting, soft sculpture, or beading. I really enjoy making this kind of art because I find a lot of excitement in different textures and shiny embellishments! I have been making a lot of banners or soft sculptures that rely on metaphors by the use of symbols in nature. Primarily I have been making art that depicts different types of orchids whose traits resemble aspects of my own life. That may be orchids that smell like rotting flesh or orchids that go into a period of dormancy. There is just something so human about making art to communicate things to the people around you. I am currently exhibiting a piece in the 11th Annual Juried Show at Artspace 111 and I plan to have several new and hopeful monumental shows coming up in the somewhat near future!
How do you think about happiness?
On a deeper level, making art that lets me share my stories with the world so others can relate and feel understood provides me with an immense amount of satisfaction. I am so grateful that I can exist in this life and make things that relate to my own experiences and have it be supported by my community. On a lighter level I am a big collector of vintage clothing and antiques from around the world that fill me to the brim with inspiration. I have a small collection of south asian puppets in my apartment, my favorites being my Wayang Goleks from West Java. There is also an array of different types of embroidered and applique covered vests and robes in my closet that bring me a lot of joy. I like to see myself as a contemporary pirate/ wizard that makes art and also goes out dancing dressed in dramatic robes and platforms. Dressing like some esoteric weirdo in public is really intimidating and I still have to conquer my own insecurities every time I go out but having people around me give me compliments makes me feel much more comfortable. I really love collecting these interesting textiles and breathing a new life into them. I think that we need to make more space for people to be as eccentric as they feel like they need to be without judgment! I am also very fortunate to have a family that supports me and loves me. I definitely would not be where I am in life without them. My parents especially have been incredibly supportive and I am really lucky to have them on my side. And finally living in such a beautiful world that may bring a lot of sadness but also surrounds us with alluring natural environments filled with the kindest people brings me so much happiness. I am so grateful to be breathing and filled with a wealth of emotions.
Contact Info:
- Website: willdeshazo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/will_deshazo_/
Image Credits
Will DeShazo
