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SPRINGVILLE — Howard Fullmer didn't know for a long time that he wanted to be an artist. He struggled through art school before launching his career. These days, he's exploring new mediums like the thousands of bullet casings in his latest pieces.
Fullmer, coordinator for the illustration program at Utah Valley University, has some valuable perspective to offer his students. Unlike many artists who feel art is their calling early on, Fullmer didn’t come to the conclusion until after he served an LDS mission. He changed course from attending medical school to illustration when he returned to school, and he spent the next few years catching up. But in the last years of his bachelor’s program, he said it started coming together.
“I was a good student but terrible at drawing and painting. But I had a few things going for me,” Fullmer said. “Thanks to growing up and taking care of cows, I was a hard worker. Plus, I was creative and I had some key teachers at just the right time. So while I was one of the worst in my program starting out, my abilities began to catch up to my ideas the summer between my junior and senior years.”
After graduation, he adopted digital illustration, earning him spots at Marriott, United Parcel Service, Subway, Microsoft and other companies doing award-winning work. His struggle came full circle when he was offered a teaching position.
“Having been a less-than-stellar student and having struggled with some of my professors, teaching was the last career I ever wanted,” he said. “But, I had an opportunity to teach in a new digital art program at a small community college in Oregon. I accepted and found I loved it!”
Now at UVU, Fullmer continues to help students find their passion, and he offers some advice from his hard-earned career.
“I have taught now for nearly 15 years and have learned a few things,” Fullmer said. “First, I have learned that talent is less important than hard work in determining future success. Second, students are far too centered in the discipline they want to pursue and need to open up to exploration — the real commodity of an artist is creativity. Finally, never let a professor or anyone determine what the future holds. Had I listened to my art professors, I would have a degree in recreation management or family science.”
Fullmer’s art has also shifted since those early years in his career. He currently works with bullet casings, collecting them from shooting ranges and carefully sorting them by color and using them to form a sort of brass collage. A piece called “America’s Past-Time” is currently hanging in the Springville Museum of Art and required more than 7,500 bullet casings to complete.
- Website: FullmerArt.com
- Facebook: Facebook.com/fullmerart
- View: Springville Museum of Art and Woodbury Art Museum
“Guns are such a volatile topic right now and there seems to be no middle ground. As strong as gun advocates are when it comes to constitutional beliefs about weapons, those opposed to firearms are just as passionate,” he said. “I love that a medium can bring that much meaning into a piece regardless of the image. I am deliberately evasive in discussing my opinions of firearms when it comes to the messages of my work. Because there is so many differing opinions inherently assigned to guns and bullets, I want viewers to come to their own conclusions. That I am for or against guns is inconsequential to the artwork.”
