Ashleigh Rogers
A question I always like to ask is: how did you get started with art? Did you always know art would be an integral part of your life?

Dustin Regul
For me, it definitely started with my high school art teacher, a very, very influential person. Mr. Tudor was his name. Freshman year high school, I took an art class and just fell in love with what I was doing in there. So with art being more of an elective throughout high school, I took as many art classes as I could, because basically, I just wanted to hang out in Mr. Tudor’s classroom most of the time.
Before that, I definitely had no aspirations or direction toward art. I would do doodles and things like that, and I'd enjoy it. I'd enjoy the feeling of making something. But ultimately, I had no intention or plan of pursuing art in any manner. It really wasn't until high school when I was like, oh, okay, this is actually a potential, now.

AR
And from there, did you go straight into your undergrad?

DR
Yeah. I got my Bachelors of Arts at Illinois College.

We're originally from Hebron, Illinois, which is a town right on the Wisconsin border. It was nice, growing up in a small town. But you were also like an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Chicago. So small town growing up, but access to just about anything you could need. So that part was nice. Then Illinois College for undergrad. And then I got my Master of Arts at Eastern Illinois University. And then from that point, I took a little break from school.

I knew I wanted to eventually get my terminal degree in studio art via MFA. And interestingly enough, I heard about this guy in Casey, Illinois, which was like 30 minutes south of Charleston, where I was living after I graduated from my MA program. And his main business was pipeline and tank maintenance for oil companies. And that's where he made his big bucks. But he wanted to make his hometown of Casey, Illinois a tourist attraction. And Casey has a population of 3000. So it's pretty small. And I heard that he made the world's largest wind chime. And then he was working on the world's largest golf tee. And so one day, I just drove on down there. And I was like, “Hey, I have an art degree and I'm pretty good at carpentry.” And he wanted some help. So I worked there for three years and we built the world's largest rocking chair, the world's largest pitcher, the world's largest mailbox, the world's largest Dutch wooden shoe.

AR
Oh my gosh. So are all of these in the same place? Is that what you meant by making it a tourist attraction?

DR
Yeah. ​​And the nice thing was, even though it was a tiny town, it was right on Interstate 70, which goes between St. Louis and Indianapolis. So you have a lot of traffic. So just putting some billboards out on the interstate, people would come through.

I was there for three years and we made a bunch of world records. Not only was it fun being a part of that, but also it was fascinating learning how to actually get things Guinness Book of World Records certified.

AR
And so when that project was over, was it like, Okay, it's time for me to move on. This project is done?

DR
The project was still going on, but I could see that things were starting to wind down. So then I got into substitute teaching. While I had been doing those ‘world's largest’ things, I was working about 50 to 60 hours a week. And so when I was home, I wasn’t making a lot of my own personal work. I was like, Man, I'm exhausted.

Subbing was a good side gig money maker that was also like, if I woke up that morning, and I wanted to paint and not go make money that day, I could just not take the job.

AR
Do you feel like your teaching and your painting feed each other?

DR
Honestly, now that I’m teaching from home, those online courses have greatly improved my own painting skills. I'm kind of at the point where I wouldn't be doing these tedious beginning painting techniques, right? But see, when we were online, I needed to actually paint along with the students with a document camera so they have a visual, unlike in the studio, where I just walk around and give them feedback and things like that. So here I am, for three semesters, almost three semesters in a row, just repeating the same beginning things, and I'm like, I'm perfecting this.

And then as far as artistry, I've gone through all the Art History courses as a student, but there's something different about going through a lot of these as an instructor. I'm definitely gaining a deeper appreciation of being re-reminded of these artists that I may not have thought of if not for teaching.

I end up finding a better appreciation for not just the work that has been created throughout our history, but specifically how artists’ mindsets have kind of shifted over the age from more of the classical period to the Impressionist, and on into 20th century modern art.Then you kind of have this schism of some trying to hold onto traditional art, and then artists going more toward art for art's sake.
One of my favorite things about teaching is when I'm covering a topic that I've covered many times, and a student will chime in with their opinion, and it's like, Wow; I've never even considered it from that perspective.

AR
I love it. Where else do you feel like you get a lot of your inspiration from?

DR
A lot of my inspiration comes from the connections between art and science. And a lot of my initial art drives — when I really started pursuing art as a potential career  — comes from Carl Sagan. I remember, in my younger days, reading his book called Cosmos. And I watched the show. And now my art is loosely based on just kind of that idea of how to put into art this idea, or feeling, or the human impulse that we have of just trying to seek the unknown. No matter how much we as a human race know about the world around us, there's always this line of knowledge. It's almost like a bubble. And we keep trying to push that line of knowledge further; but honestly, the more we push that line of knowledge, the more we realize what we don't know. And so, from that, it's just like that sense of awe and wonder, but also kind of intimidating in a way. How can someone portray that in artistic visuals? And so that's the overarching sense of what inspires my artwork.

AR
So the approach to a lot of your work sounds like it comes from a question standpoint; like your artwork is maybe in response to, maybe not a specific question, but just ‘question’ in general.

DR
I personally am not necessarily drawn toward the kind of artwork that just holds the viewers’ hands, but instead, kind of just poses questions and puts more of a responsibility onto the viewer. That’s ultimately the kind of artwork I’m wanting to create.

AR
What materials are you primarily using in your work right now?

DR
Over the pandemic I got really into making my own paper. I use stuff like my receipts, junk mail, paper, old assignment sheets from school, grocery bags… I mean, just like whatever recycled paper. And it just comes out to be this smoothe, beige paper, with a nice deckled edge. And I've been oil painting on my homemade paper.

AR
What do you do with the paper when you're done?

DR
I made so much of it because I was having so much fun. So I also kind of got into bookbinding. And just like making these little sketchbook things. And sometimes I'll use clear gesso on my paper and kind of leave a little bit of a margin around the border before I start doing the oil painting. And then I'll mount it — I don't put it in a frame, but I put these metal grommets in the four corners of the paper and then just pin it up. So you get to see the whole — you get to enjoy the visual tactile experience of the homemade paper.

Another thing I started doing over the pandemic was film photography. My bathroom kind of got turned into a dark room for a while. And one time I was in the Blue Mountains hiking and just took a bunch of really cool shots from super high up. And so it was like a deep valley, and then you saw mountains on the other side. And so with a lot of my work, I've been fascinated more recently about space — not space as in outer space, but just how we interact with space and how space is constantly moving. People don't necessarily think about it. But the planets are spinning and orbiting and the entire solar system is spinning through a galaxy, with the galaxy also moving through space. I mean, if we could actually feel and see space, things would just be constantly moving; we're not in the same space that we were three seconds ago, right? And so because of that, like I was, I was super fascinated by thinking about those things while looking across this valley.

And so then I started doing this series where I take those photos, develop the film, scan the negatives on a really high quality scanner I have so I can turn my film negatives into a digital black and white image, and then print those images I took onto my homemade paper. I would then cut the homemade paper into geometric shapes, like a cube. And so I have this printed space folded into a cube, and then I'd set it up in a still life and then paint that. Yeah. And so it was like I took three dimensional space of the valley, put it back to two dimensional, then put it back into three dimensional because I fold it into a piece and then put it back into two dimensional by creating a painting out of it.

AR
That's so cool. A total exploration of space and time and dimension.

DR
​​And I didn't completely close the paper cube. So you can see this landscape photograph. But then it's all distorted and folded. But then you can see this like empty space inside the cube. So it's kind of like trying to elicit like, here's the space that you recognize, but what about the space within the space?

Who was it who said something along those lines? Something like “A bowl is not a bowl without the empty space inside of it.” Something that has a utilitarian purpose, so many times. people don't acknowledge the space that is required. They're only looking at the physical thing.

AR
Yes. I love that exploration. That's really cool. It does feel like a performance piece to me to make the whole thing. And it also feels like it's a huge time commitment. And I guess that my question about that would be: Art seems super integrated into your entire life. But do you ever find it difficult? Do you have a ritual that gets you into the mood to create? Or maybe when you have those moments you choose not to create?

DR
It's definitely a blessing and a curse. There are plenty of times when you have the urge to make. And boy, those are such beautiful times when you have that urge and you have time at the same time. Those two together. Then there are times where I want to make and I don't have the time. And then there's times I have the time and like I need to be doing something. And I mean, I'm very fortunate to have pursued a career in something that I love doing. Yes, there are plenty of times where I mean, it is work. Yes, it's my career. Absolutely. There's times where it's like, I don't feel like doing it. But even in times I didn't feel like doing it, I'm willing to work anyway.

As for the rituals, I definitely need music going on. And I find that I have to… ‘prime that space’ is how I like to describe it. Like I can't just I can't just walk into wherever my studio space is set up. I’ve gotta clean something or move something or prep something, or like even if I don't need to make paper or build a canvas, I’ll stretch a canvas. Like even if that's not required for the art I'm doing right now. It's like, mentally, I kind of need to do just random prep work before I get started; those kinds of mindless, process-oriented things before I can say, Okay, now I can actually take some time and be more creative as opposed to just mindless making.

AR
Yeah, that makes sense to me. I mean, just like we would warm up before we go for a jog. We don't just bolt out the door.

I want to transition into talking a little bit about how you feel like art fits into our community and society as a whole. How does art affect change? And I think that that might be a way for us to start talking a little bit about the public art project you’re doing. Because I think that, particularly in more conservative communities, a lot of times art is viewed as frivolous, even though, truthfully, it's woven into everything we do as humans.

DR
​​I'm very familiar with the all too common idea that the arts are frivolous, at least from a capitalistic mindset. It can be frustrating. But then at the same time, I feel like in order to help persuade or influence people of those mindsets, you have to meet them on their level first.

I am a realist. I know not every student I'm teaching is going to have a lifelong career as an artist. A lot of them, especially in my Intro to Art or Art Appreciation, are just taking it for their fine art requirement. But I take those beginning level classes extremely seriously, because it's like, this is my one opportunity and then they're gonna go do something else in life and never think about art ever again. So I think, what can I give to the student? As a society, creativity and idea generation are necessary, and can be developed in other areas of academia. I was just reading a study the other day about students who are concurrently taking an arts course doing significantly better in their science and math courses. And I mean, it makes sense.

AR
Can you tell me more about this public art project that you've been doing with your students?

DR
There’ve been plenty of times I'm just a recess supervisor and I'm standing on the playground making sure no kid hits another kid or something like that. And I noticed just about every elementary school in the Richland district has one of those independent wall-ball walls just out in the middle of the playground. And I thought that'd be a great space for a mural — not only great space for here, but great space for a continued project because there are so many schools with those walls.

When I was recruiting students to do the project, I said, yes, this is volunteer work. But for your resume, you can put this down as volunteer work, community service, and a public art project. Or you can — depending on the effort you put in — you can put me down as a reference, as well. And students have done that.

We worked with the school, with the teachers and students, to come up with [the design]. I can't tell you how many students were coming up with ideas like, Well, what if you do this? And, We're going to do that? And I could see how that might have been a little annoying for some people. But honestly, it's like, no, this is exactly what I wanted this project to be doing is getting students to have ideas and get excited about public art.

AR
And would you say that that's the importance of public art in general? That it creates that dialogue?

DR
I mean, not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it also gets you to think. It's just like planting the seed of something and who knows where your creative mind can go from there? I believe it's a quote by the artist, Marcel Duchamp that I center most of my art, and my philosophy on art, around, and it says that art is not meant to please the eye, but to tease the mind. And so, with the mural, I want to adjust that phrase just a little bit to include art that can please the eye while also teasing the mind, because there also is a level of aesthetic appreciation when it comes to art. We don't want to just completely neglect aesthetics.

AR
And sometimes aesthetics can make the thematic or the concept more accessible.

DR
Like we were talking about with meeting people in the middle.

AR
Yes. So, one of the questions I like to wrap up with is just asking the artists that I'm talking to what do you think the community can do to better support artists?

DR
I honestly think when it comes down to it, I definitely put more responsibility on the artist. I put way more of the onus on the artistic minds of the community. It's up to them. You can't expect  the mayor to come knocking on your door and be like, here's a check for $5,000. We want some art around here. It's like, no; you, the artist, needs to be more proactive. So opportunity from the community, and more ambition from local artists. Because it really just takes one person. And so all you can do is start small. I kind of started with my classes, and then I'm trying to make the department a little bit better, and trying to branch out to the community, and I hope something takes off. I hope I influenced other artists of the community to be more proactive.

You can see more of Dustin M. Regul's artwork, along with artists Harry Mestyanek and Richie Masias, in the show Datum at the Saranac Art Gallery in Spokane:

Reception: Friday 8/5 from 5–8pm
25 W. Main Ave. Spokane, WA

Datum will be on display for the entire month of August.

Ashleigh Rogers is the Creative Director at DrewBoy Creative. She is an artist and art instructor living in Richland, Washington with her husband and four children.

She is an artist, art instructor, and facilitator in Tri-Cities, Washington. Her work explores the themes of connection and intergenerational stories through experimentation in painting, photography, installation, and sculpture. Ashleigh is passionately dedicated to facilitating accessible arts programming in her community.

Find her on Facebook: fb.com/AshleighRogersArt, Instagram: ashleigh.a.rogers, or on her website: www.ashleighrogersart.com