Bill Hall is the dad of Bulletbugz.  They're hatched in his race shop/studio far off the beaten path in Sparta, Tennessee.  After a gift of reloading equipment and brass from his father, he discovered that military surplus brass was not the best for reloading.  A fair amount of this brass was in his hands and not one to waste such things, Bulletbugz were hatched.

                               

With a long history of tinkering on race cars, working with metal was second nature to Bill.  Often times racing components were altered from their intended use so they would perform better, or altered to perform an entirely different task in the racing environment.  Bulletbugz were hatched from this tinkering.  Every race garage has a catch all "mystery box", loaded with small parts, bolts, nuts, clips, and all matters of small metal objects.  The marriage of the contents of the "mystery box" with the surplus military brass begat Bulletbugz.

Bill's long time racing experience led him to design and build special tools to fabricate the "blanks", or basic bugz.  The blanks are then posed using items from the "mystery box".  Not too far into the process, the "mystery box" was running low on odds and ends.  These were replenished with visits to a local appliance junkyard.  Brass was also running low and friends who enjoyed shooting sports gave Bill odds and ends brass that they did not intend to reload.  The odds and ends from the mystery box are soldered to the Bugz, creating a unique sculpture that depicts whatever is on Bill's mind at the time.

All Bugz are made from spent cartridges.  The cartridges have been drilled in multiple locations and wires inserted for appendages.  They are in no manner a fireable round.  If they were....they wouldn't be Bulletbugz!

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Comments from the "artist"

I've never viewed myself as artistic.  My wife is a fine craft potter and has always been the artist in the family.  My eldest daughter is following in her mother's footsteps as an art history major at UNC Chapel Hill.  I live in a home that has art on almost every wall and table, and my wife has had a pottery studio for more years than I can recall.  I basically live "up to my eyeballs" in art.....but have no connection to it other than my relationship with my family.  I'm an engineer by education, with over 30 years experience in the construction industry.  I drive a Formula Vee SCCA race car and have been involved in racing since I was sixteen years old.   In construction and racing, we're very basic, very logical, and very linear in our thought.  My only foray into "art" was a ten year stint as a sports photographer on the NASCAR Winston Cup tour. 

I never viewed the photography work as "art".  It was always about capturing what went on in front of me.  I was successful at it, being published around the world, and was represented (and still am for archival photos) by Getty Images, probably the most prestigious photo agency in the world.  I was self taught and never received any formal photographic training. 

I also did not view my work on Bulletbugz as art.  I thought of it as just "tin knocking" in the race shop.  I had heard my daughter and wife discussing "outsider art", "folk art", "craft", and "anthropomorphic art", but had absolutely no clue what these terms meant.....much less that they pertained to me and my work on Bulletbugz.  Within the last few weeks, I have at least learned the meaning of these terms.  I just thought that I was fiddling around in the garage.

I remain gloriously ignorant of the art world.  I'll leave art to the true arts people in my family.  I'm just tin knocking in my race shop way out in the boonies.  I hope you enjoy my work.

-Bill Hall