Roller: the paintings of Donald Roller Wilson

Donald Roller Wilson (b. 1938) is an American artist who uses some unique items in his paintings, such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks, and even cigarettes. He paints in oils in very polished realism using the same techniques of the Old Masters. Some of the characters he has created include Cookie the Baby Orangutan, Jane the Pug Girl, Jack the Jack Russell "Terror," Loretta the Actress Cat, Miss Dog America, and Patricia the Seeing Eye Dog of Houston. Some of his works can be seen in the Brooklyn Museum; Chicago Art Institute; Whitney Museum; Bank of America in San Francisco, California; Coe Kerr Gallery, New York City; and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, as well as many other galleries. The majority of his work is in the hands of private collectors. He was also Frank Zappa's visual coordinator during the 1980s and 1990s. He produced the cover art for Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984), Francesco Zappa (1984) and Them Or Us (1984). He taught at the University of Arkansas from 1967 - 1974 and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife Kathleen, also an artist. His main gallery at present is the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, and his paintings may be collected through Peter Sahlman in New York.