Donald Roller Wilson was born on November 23, 1938 in Houston, Texas. His family moved to Wichita when Wilson was in fifth-grade. In addition to his classes at the Wichita Art Association, Wilson completed two degrees at Wichita State University and taught classes there. Wilson was an art professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville from 1967-74, and that is where he continues to live. Wilson was Frank Zappa's visual coordinator during the 1980s and 1990s and produced the cover art for several of Zappa's albums. Wilson 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. Donald Roller Wilson is a painter who describes his work as a "by-product of his thoughts." According to him, he spends his "days and nights pondering the meaning of life, the state of the universe, and the Home Shopping Network. . . .More than anything, my work deals with pointlessness. It takes all the arrogance out of everything you do when you know that god is so much bigger than you are. And yet everything you are and do and see is filled with god: the grass, the asphalt, and the people fighting over Aqua net at Wal-Mart. . . .You can make a profound intellectual statement just by basing your efforts on silliness."