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Adam Palmer
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Adam Palmer
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Adam Palmer
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Adam Palmer
Anyone who grew up in small-town Texas before the proliferation of the internet knows how to combat boredom by creating one’s own entertainment. For local artist Adam Palmer, growing up in the West Texas town of Monahans, this meant playing sports or drawing and doodling as a form of escapism. “We didn't have a skating rink, we didn't have an arcade, nothing like that,” Palmer says. “So, for my entertainment, I had to create my own little world. And the friends around me, we had to create our own kind of humor.” Palmer creates ornate drawings and doodles with imagery that is a nod to the Saturday-morning cartoon, which served as his first introduction to art. “I didn't go into an art museum till I was like, I'd say 22. I never even stepped into one. So, my art was MTV, Nickelodeon.”
After receiving his undergrad at Angelo State University before making his way to Denton for grad school, Palmer eventually settled in Fort Worth, where he took part in shows at Fort Works Art. His work recently caught the eye of the people behind Meow Wolf, an informal DIY collective that rebooted the trend of immersive art spaces in Santa Fe in 2008 and will soon open a new exhibition space in Grapevine. Palmer is among over 40 DFW artists picked to work on the project, including Fort Worth favorites Mariel Guzman and Katie Murray. For the exhibition, he is creating two 3-feet by 4-feet dioramas bringing his cartoon-like creations into another dimension by experimenting with jigsaw cutouts, which he says he “Frankensteined” together with plastic sculptures.
Amazingly, he somehow manages to create new work while still finding value in teaching art at the high school level despite struggling in school himself. “If you saw my grades in school, God bless my parents,” Palmer says. “They were nice about it, but my grades were not great. I won the band award. I won the art award. I was good in the wood shop. If it was that side of the brain, I was focused. I tried my best. But if it was something else, even if I tried, my brain said, ‘You don't need to know this.’ I was kind of drawing ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ on my book cover, too, at the time, but I wanted to teach because I noticed when I'd help a friend draw, I got joy out of seeing them be productive at it. I would give 'em a little tip, and they could do it. I think it's a rewarding job, too. I know a lot of people complain about being a teacher. I love it. It's just like any job — there are days I want to ram my head through the wall, but there's times where I'm sitting or standing in class, like, ‘I get paid to do this, to teach art?’”
Now that the Meow Wolf pieces are almost done, Palmer is getting back to where it all started and spending at least three hours a day listening to music and creating mini worlds in sketchbooks. “That’s my ultimate joy, now that football season is over. I just put on music and zone out.”
