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HOOKED ON EAST TEXAS: Best Chance Lures

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TYLER, Texas — Art comes in all forms, paintings and sculptures but what about fishing lures? In this edition of Hooked on East Texas we meet an artist who brings art to life through fishing lures. We'll start with this simple premise. A fishing lure can make or break a day on the lake. But fishing lures go beyond the water and can be pieces of art.  

“I had been collecting fishing lures since I was a kid", said Chance Dunlap an East Texas artist who deals in a different kind of water color. Not water color paints, no he creates wonderfully carved and colorfully painted lures that can be cast into water to catch fish. And now his hand carved and hand painted lures are on display at Tyler’s Museum of Art.

Dunlap collected lures as a kid. His appreciation for old lures and love of fishing motivated him in carving his own lures.

“I think something about me, we just grew up making things and having access to tools, and our parents encouraged that", Dunlap told me as he showed us the very first lures he carved. In fact, one of the earliest lures he carved, he thought was the coolest lure ever created. Except for one detail.

“You know, I think I thought I did, until I went and fished with it, when it just, like, rolled over upside down. And, you know, but you learn something. But I learned a lot from it", recalled Dunlap.

Now what if I told you, Dunlap stopped carving lures for twenty years. He spent those years earning his master’s in fine arts but calls it a grueling goal. 

Dunlap told us, “You know, art goes from being like this fun thing you love to do, to being this less fun process at some point. And so, I think by starting to make fishing lures during that, it kind of gave me an outlet.”

That outlet now looks like minnows with tails and implied gills. This popper with a smooth texture, feathers and faces adds a unique aesthetic. “My lures that I make now my best chance fishing lures, they're all weighted. I carved them. They have lead weights poured into them. They give them a balance, and I test them all out to make sure they'll, you know, do something I want them to do”, said Dunlap.

Dunlap can spend eight hours to eight days, carving, sanding, smoothing and painting a lure. All the wood comes from the piney woods of East Texas. He bought a truckload from a sawmill in Ben Wheeler. Dunlap says his lures can be a gateway into the outdoors and nature for art lovers. 

It’s why Tyler Museum of Art executive director Caleb Belle included the lures in an art exhibit celebrating Texas state parks. “And we just thought they would be a great addition to the gift shop to let the community come enjoy, take a look at them, think about art in a functional yet really esthetic way”, said Belle.

 Dunlap’s art extends beyond the museum walls. He’s published in magazines that highlight lure collections. Some intricate and some basic, old-fashioned lures. “I'm attracted to those because I appreciate the makers of things, even if they're less refined than what you would expect from the factory”, said Dunlap.

And that brings us back to where it all started. Three simple lures, cut from wood and carved out of a love for fishing. And to anyone who loves art and fishing, Here’s Dunlap’s’ advice. “Embrace it, try to hang on to it somehow, out of the moves that my family made, all the changes that I made, going to college and moving and getting married, that somehow I've held on to these, and there's a lot of other things that I did not but for some reason, I kept these three fishing lures”, Dunlap said.

If you want to get an up close look at some of the lures in Dunlap's collection, head on over to the Tyler Museum of Art. His works will be available in the gift shop and on display until early January. 

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