Home Run Derby

So a couple days ago, Home Run Derby showed you a time lapse video of a guy making a portrait of Cal Ripken Jr out of thumbtacks.

Admit it, you were impressed. We were, so we reached out to the artist.  

His name is Dustin Barkley – and he’s a man of many talents.  

Home Run Derby:  Let me speak for lots of people when I say … that is simply awesome. 
Dustin Barkley:  Glad you liked my Cal Ripken.  It has been a lot of fun to see people appreciate it.

HRD: How long did it take you?  How much did it cost?
DB:   Well it was almost $400 just for the supplies to build it.  10,000 thumb tacks add up quick.  Then I spent 30 hours making it.  Overall it took a little over a month to complete.

HRD: What inspired you to make Cal Ripken Jr out of thumbtacks?
DB:   I picked Cal because I was making this for my brother and that is his favorite baseball player.

HRD: Tell us a little about you.
DB:   I’m 25 years old and lives in th D.C. Area.  I work for a custom T-Shirt company.

HRD: Being from the Beltway … are you an Orioles fan?
DB:   My team has always been the Minnesota Twins.  I grew up a huge Kirby Puckett fan and love that they can win as a small market team.

HRD: Are there beer bottles moving around on the table to the right?
DB:   I did kick back a few beers while I was working on it.

HRD: We noticed you held up a Patrick Star mug and a cat.  What’s in the mug?  Who’s the cat?  Spill.
DB:   There was just Coffee inside of Patrick – it was early in the morning.  My cats name is Q-tip. 

HRD: Do you have other thumb tack masterpieces?
DB:   This is the first thumbtack project I have done.  I did do Mr. T out of bottle caps

HRD: (Spits out coffee)  Mr. T? Really?  What inspired you to do that?
DB:   I am not sure exactly what inspired me to do it, just the challenge I guess.

HRD: Please tell me you’re gonna share that with us.
DB:   Here’s a couple pics of Mr. T – they are a little blurry but you will get the idea.

Click on the pics for full size images.

HRD: Last Q – can you make a portrait of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews out of Big League Chew? Sports bloggers everywhere would be in your debt.
DB:   If I do recall it does come in different flavors – so it would be possible.

Mmmmm.  Erin Andrews made of bubble gum.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Drunken Fans, HRD Interviews, Orioles, Twins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.