The Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project

Dustin Hall

Dustin Hall is a self-taught painter working out of Neon, Kentucky and the neighboring town of Whitesburg, home to the famous Appalshop cultural center. In the past few years, he has a created a prolific body of work that engages multiple aspects of his identity–young, queer, Appalachian–while challenging established artistic assumptions regarding bodies, landscapes, figures, and abstraction. His distinct, expressionistic style entangles human bodies, natural forms, religious and mythological imagery, and vibrant arrays of color to construct a pointed commentary on his identity and surroundings. Often painting on unconventional materials that are readily available to him, including dollar store housewares and frames found in the dumpster, Hall maintains a keen sense of irony and self-awareness towards the pretensions that wind their way around the academic art world.  His paintings are not only aesthetic adventures but records of his experiences as a gay man in Appalachia.

Dustin Hall's entire body of work is visible on his Instagram account, @birdsdeadbutshesnot.  

Click the title of each piece to view the full image and listen, when available, to an audio recording of Dustin Hall describing his inspiration and process behind the work of art. 

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