Artist Bio

An Oklahoma Choctaw Native artist, D.G. Smalling is best known for his one-line, continuous drawing technique in which his pen never leaves the paper until the image is complete. Although Smalling rarely enters competitive shows, he was among a select group of artists who represented Oklahoma at Disney’s Epcot Center in 2007. He participated in Choctaw Days at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2012, where he presented on World War I Choctaw code talkers, including his great-grandfather, Calvin Wilson.

Like many artists, D.G.’s art is informed by his life experiences — as a boy in southeastern Oklahoma, as a child by his parents’ sides as they worked as Assemblies of God missionaries overseas, as a student absorbing art and poetry classes in Europe, as a member of the Choctaw Nation, and as a young man working with victims of war in the conflict-ridden Balkans.

Piece Description:

When D.G. learned about Kimray’s AAA project and was invited to be a part of it, he chose not to deviate from his principal process: rendering his subject in one complete line.

“I was quite interested in being part of what is the most singular collection of Oklahoma-based contemporary artists,” he says. “It is fascinating to reflect upon an elegant piece of engineering.”

He approached the project with a rather straightforward minimalizing of line movement and incorporation of multiple red hues, he says. For his interpretation of the AAA, he used acrylic paint and sealant on a Baltic birch panel.