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Between the Leaves with Wil Bosbyshell
By Alexandra Smith
A few years ago, I wrote a memory on a slip of paper and hung it from the Memory Tree. It was placed as an interactive centerpiece in the debut of Climate Conversations, an exhibition by artist Wil Bosbyshell.
There was a magnolia tree in my grandparents’ front yard in Greensboro, North Carolina. They left that farm when I was seven, yet some memories still feel crisp, like an early spring morning. I remember gathering fallen pecans in the backyard, hanging flowers and herbs from the rafters in the basement, and swinging from the pulleys in the hay barn. But it’s the magnolia I return to most.
Glossy, leathery leaves camouflaged my movements from supervising eyes. Dinner plate blossoms filled the air with perfume. I was small enough then to reach the top, where the branches bowed but held. Within that private hideaway, I discovered my own Universe, shielded from everything by beauty and bark.
“Everyone has a relationship with a specific tree,” Wil says. “Throughout our lives, trees sustain us spiritually, by offering beauty, strength, and renewal.”
A Charlotte-based artist, professor, and lifelong hiker, Wil Bosbyshell has the instincts of a naturalist combined with the precision of a draftsman. His art grows from a lifelong relationship with the natural environment.
Portrait by Melissa Key
“I’ve always been enamored with the outdoors,” he says. As a child growing up in Florida, he spent long days in the woods and marshes with friends and family. “My friends and I built amazing tree forts,” he recalls. “We had multiple-story forts that spanned several trees.”
Where others might pass without pause, Wil observes, translating the soul of the forest with pencil and paper. He's spent the last decade developing two bodies of work: The Hike Series and Climate Conversations. Both reflect on the landscapes of North Carolina and the Southeast, where he continues to hike solo, with his family, and with local Scout troops. “There’s a tremendous amount of beauty and so many great hiking trails in this part of the country,” he says, pointing to the Carolina Thread Trail and Mountain to Sea Trail as personal favorites.
The Hike Series features dozens of petite colored pencil sketches of vistas encountered while hiking North Carolina’s winding paths. Wil records vivid greens, purple shadows, and golden sunbeams, providing portals into the forests and fields he sees along his way.
In contrast, Climate Conversations zooms in. These detailed pencil studies of individual trees focus on exploration and presence. Some drawings take as little as four hours, while the larger ones reach six feet tall and take over a year. He approaches each mark with meticulous intention. “I do a lot of erasing,” Wil shares. “I even have an eraser gun.”
Though they may appear photorealistic, Wil resists the idea that his drawings are portraits. They are more like visual meditations filtered through memory and divine proportions.
His process unfolds in two parts: abstraction and the tangible. He begins by rubbing paper directly on a tree’s bark, allowing its surface to imprint abstract marks. “Exploring texture is my favorite part,” he says. “But shape and form come next.”
Over time, this body of work has grown into a forest of reflection. Climate Conversations is now a traveling exhibition and just finished its third iteration at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University in New York.
Regardless of the venue, Wil makes the space come alive. Wandering through the exhibition, you'll see trees on fabric hung from the ceiling. They flutter softly, reflecting the serenity of the canopy outside. And on the walls, his drawings offer us a sense of firm and resolute power.
In the hush between movements, guests are invited to write down a tree memory of their own and hang it among the others. Wil has collected hundreds of heartfelt stories: notes about childhood favorites, places of mourning and meditation, and trees that grew alongside the people who loved them.
These steadfast companions protect us, nourish us, offer companionship, and record history. “Trees are not proverbial abstract things, but individual, living beings with personalities and stories to tell," Wil explains.
“If we can think about trees in a personal way,” he continues, “we see the need to increase our collective action to protect the climate, including air, soil, and water quality, to ensure the survival of trees.”
Is it a coincidence that the system of airways in our lungs resembles a tree's branches? We forget too easily that the natural world is a part of us, just like we are a part of it. Wil is helping us to remember ourselves—through the branches that let us touch the sky.
By Alexandra Smith
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