Photography and Graphic Design Teacher David Batterman

Walking into art teacher David Batterman’s room, you’ll see about 30 things upon stepping through the door: brand-new Mac computers, old Dell computers, an entrance to the darkroom, cardboard boxes with duct-tape surrounding them and more.

These things may not mean much to anyone else who walks into the room. But to Batterman, artistic inspiration may await these things in the form of his collages.

The art educator spoke about his collages, which debuted on his website in 2013.

These collages consist of characters with heads represented by carburetors, tank engines and oil tanks.

The inspiration for these pieces comes from mid-20th-century imagery in old magazines and other sources.  

“All those things have a tendency to reduce to machines. Machines of consumption or machines of whatever they want you to do,” said Batterman.

However, after making a few of the collages with the automotive-human hybrids, Batterman started to branch out to create other pieces.

Russian items started to make an appearance in his artwork. In one piece featured on his site, Batterman superimposes his own characters over a black and white NASA map of a planned missile site.

“It’s the idea of not only militarism in everyday life, but also how consumerist society and the way that advertising, marketing, and militarism, prey on this base reactionary instinct,” said Batterman of the imagery.  

Gallery • 3 Photos

Whit Whittall

Batterman's dark room, which is used to develop photos.

Batterman said that with an artist, there is always intent with one’s work; it never comes out of a random occurrence. 

“It’s about the thinking process that’s involved with it [art education]. It’s about having a problem and having a multiplicity of approaches to come at that problem and solve it in a unique way.”