Meet Wil Bosbyshell by Canvas Rebel

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wil Bosbyshell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Wil, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

I am a fine artist, but in the past and now I lead other organizations and groups. Art became my leadership tool

In high school my friends and I dreamed of drawing our own comics. I just started doing it. I created, drew, inked and lettered a comic on the correct professional paper. My friends said, “if Wil can do it, so can I.” And I helped them with their comics as well. We then published our own fanzine of comics and stories: Destiny Magazine.

In my first Army duty station I wanted to motivate my soldiers to action with less worry about being perfect. So, I gave out cartoon awards about all the unit’s funny moments.

In graduate MBA school, I wanted us all to have fun together, so I drew and wrote funny, stupid flyers for parties and events. If other students wanted to create a flyer, I encouraged it and helped with the drawing.

In my secondary Army assignment, I took the funny award idea and expanded it, encouraging the unit to contribute quotes after each exercise. We secretly displayed these funny quotes and cartoons in a closet in the back of the operations office. By accident, the Battalion Colonel saw the funny quote wall. I thought that I would be in big trouble. Instead, the Colonel had the funny quotes moved to the 100-foot wall in front of his office. “Captain Bosbyshell, you’re in charge of curating the funny wall. Everyone can be made fun of without exception! Especially me.” Every officer and senior Sergeant leaving the unit received a bound printed book compiling the funny quotes and cartoons.

As scoutmaster, there were already many awards built into the scouting system: merit badges, event patches, ranks, etc. However, they were a little stiff, boring, or formal. My senior boys were crazy jokers. Most kids are. Good boys, but real cutups.

After the first outing I handed the older boys a pad of paper in the van on the way home. “Write down the funny and stupid things the boys said and did this weekend,” I asked. They filled the pad! No encouragement needed. I went home and drew a page with cartoons of our Troop’s adventures, then I turned the quotes into awards. For example: “Most volume of puke ever seen” award, which became known as the spew award. On this outing a boy got carsick, puking both in and out of a parent’s car. Not his parents’ car of course. The funny awards, as they became known, were presented at the meeting after each outing, so a quick turnaround. These awards also included many positives like “Best Cooking Patrol, Top Chef, and Toughest Biker.” But the awards like the Spew Award are great behavior modifiers. A boy that earned the ‘Spew Award’ or one of its variations, ‘Most Chunky Puke and Puking in the Fire,’ never threw up again on a subsequent outing. Success!

Some of my childhood friends needed this type of award, they threw up everywhere.

The boys displayed their collected funny awards at important rank ceremonies. The troop grew from nine boys to fifty while I was a scoutmaster. My fellow scoutmasters, the serious ones, never understood the value of the funny awards. “Wil, these awards are completely made-up and don’t make sense!”
No, not to adults, but the boys loved them. Who says artists can’t be leaders?

Wil, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I received a BFA (as a member of the ROTC) and MBA from the University of Georgia and spent six years as an officer in the US Army following my undergraduate education. After a successful business career in the private sector, I was awarded a residency at the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest, which set the course for my artistic career. I have a studio in the Charlotte North Davidson Street Arts District, and taught as an arts professor for two decades at local community & technical colleges.

I am an artist whose art is rooted in a love for the natural environment, and our intimate but often unconscious relationship with it. My ongoing observation and time amidst both urban and natural landscapes allows me to center my practice on honoring and protecting the world, while simultaneously paying homage to the beauty it provides. Growing up immersed in a seascape menagerie full of natural curiosities, my work stems from personal questions and ongoing studies of how nature can serve our needs, and conversely, how we must also meet the needs of the natural environment.

My particular fascination with trees lies in my belief that trees are not proverbial abstract things but individual, living beings with personalities and stories to tell. Bringing those stories into a daily consciousness is at the heart of my creative process. By centering on the interaction between the texture of the bark, the natural design of the limbs and the depiction of scars left by time and weather, I can achieve an asymmetrical balance that stimulates our minds and invites us to develop a more personal relationship with trees—leading to greater understanding of their importance in the ecosystem and the spiritual place they hold in the world.

My main art series now focus on graphite tree drawings and hiking sketches.

The thing that drives me to make art is the conversations it generates with other people. Those conversations can be in a classroom or worship setting or with the public.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I went into the US Army between art school and having a professional career. The Army is such a unique and supportive environment, it was hard to transition to the business world where everyone is on their own.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bosbyshellartstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wilbosbyshell/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wil.bosbyshell/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilbosbyshell/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wilbosbyshell/videos

 

At the Edge of the World

 

At the Edge of the World

By Wil Bosbyshell

Standing at the edge of the world, it's giving me the chills.

-      Green Day

 

It looked like a cartoon; one I watched as a kid on Saturday mornings. A big, round, pitch black hole in the side of a cliff with very large tracks going in and out: this was a bear cave.

Not just any bear cave; it was a grizzly bear cave in the middle of nowhere, Alaska. Except, this wasn't a cartoon, it was a real bear cave, only 25 yards away from me. I was standing at the edge of the world in front of a bear cave, and it was giving me chills, both literal and metaphorical.

“Sergeant Major Roberts is there a reason we stopped here,” I casually inquired. We were looking out of the top two hatches of our Army Arctic Snowcat. “Besides observing a bear cave, well… no,” he said laughing. I tried not to sound scared, which I was. Actually I was really scared. This was a grizzly bear cave, and it was a warm day for February in Delta Junction, Alaska at 10°F above zero. “It’s so warm, they might wake up from hibernating,” I ventured as an important theory. “Look at those prints, they are enormous,” the Sergeant Major added gleefully. He was a British Army combat veteran of the Falkland Island war. He had no fear, or at least far less fear than I had.

“We've seen it …. let's move along,” I said trying to sound tough.

It was going to be quite a day. I was the 2^nd Lieutenant test officer for the Army's new 105 mm light Howitzer at Fort Greely, Alaska (The Army’s Northern Warfare Test Center). It was February 1985 and we were testing the Howitzer’s performance on skis. Using a SUS-V Arctic Snowcat, a vehicle with two articulated sections equipped with rubber tracks so it could ‘float’ on top of the snow, which towed the Howitzer on skis. We were documenting the skis durability and what depth of snow, if any, they would get stuck in.

As part of the test, we were on a two-day trek through the northern warfare school property on Ft. Greely Alaska, which was thousands of acres of untouched wilderness. Earlier that morning we had driven to the top of a very large snowbank. We stopped, literally floating on the snow due to the snow cat’s rubber treads. I was navigator and opened my side door to check the snow depth. Looking down, it didn’t look that deep to me. Standard procedure dictated I put on my bear claw, or small, snowshoes to jump down into snow of unknown depth. Disregarding this standard procedure, I jumped into the snow certain that the ground was not too far below. I knew something was wrong when my head passed the tractor treads on the way down.

Fortunately, I grabbed the bottom snow cat track as I fell past it on the way to certain death by snow suffocation. I was hanging, feet dangling and arms outstretched, in the snow below the snow cat. Staff Sergeant Smith pulled me back in as I yelled, “no one else jump out.” “Lieutenant, that wasn’t the easy way to exit the vehicle. It wasn’t even the hard way. That was the ‘cowboy’ way!” Sergeant Major Roberts said, “Are you Americans normally this daft, or did you take pills today?” He had a point.

We never found the ground. We tried to measure the snow depth with a weighted string and never found the bottom. Ten in the morning and already a brush with death, a common occurrence in Alaska. It seems there was no amount of snow that would cause these skis to get stuck. I thought, test mission accomplished!

We traveled onto the unmanned remote weather station, Observation Post 35, that was the midpoint of our trek. On top of a lookout tower, the air was so clear with zero humidity that we could see Mt. Denali 200 miles away. I thought that we had successfully determined the Howitzer equipped with skis was able to trail the snow cat through any depth of snow. However, the Sergeant Major felt differently; he felt we needed to try the terrain in snowy ravines. Presently, we were traveling in a deep snowy canyon when we came across the bear cave.

The ravine walls towered 50 feet over the top of the snow cat. We could only drive forward, there was no room to turn around. There was no place to go should a pissed off grizzly bear charge out of the cave, which I was certain was imminent.

“Hibernating bears definitely get up and walk around on occasion…. you know, to maybe shit in the woods,” I tried a joke. “Is the cave scaring you Lieutenant?” the Sergeant Major asked. “Hell yes, it is,” I replied. The prints in and out of the cave were massive and many. We had only three live rounds in a shot gun to scare off wildlife. The Sergeant Major loved to pick on Lieutenants and especially this Lieutenant. I was used to it, everyone in the Army hated lieutenants. I could tell that SGT Vereen and the two 18-year-old privates with us were not too excited by the bear cave either. No one volunteered to get out or even suggested it. No dares were issued. A shot gun was not going to stop any bear that made the tracks we were looking at.

Fortunately for us, the bears were sleeping soundly. We slowly crept away; it was a little too warm that day to tarry in front of a grizzly bear cave.

We stopped for the night about five miles away and out of the ravine. We pitched the 5-man tent, small and hexagonal, for our camp. We laid out the canvas floor and lit the Yukon stove. No cots. A cot was too cold in Alaska; cold air circulating under you was a bad thing. It had been a warm day at 1:00 o'clock when the sun rose above the horizon for two hours. By 5:00 o'clock it was pitch black as usual, -10°F and dropping. Minus 10°F in Alaska was not too dangerous if you were trained for it and had the proper clothing. Not deadly like -55°F.

I lived off hot tea while I was in the Army in Alaska. Tea bags were weightless and many could be compressed into a very small space. Perfect for heavy backpacks. To warm myself, in the now minus 10-degree temperature, I drank too much hot tea for dinner. We heated and ate our MREs, chatted, told jokes, and the new Grenada combat vets told stories.

Sometime in the night, I had to pee because of all the tea I drank. I tried to hold it in but decided it was too long until morning. Going out into the Alaska night, I walked away from the tent into the dense, dark forest around our tent. The moon was bright on the snow and this close to the Arctic Circle the trees were very short. I started doing my business, sleepy, drowsy not paying attention to my surroundings. I was looking up at the amazingly clear, starry sky when I heard the slightest of slight noises in front of me. It's quiet in the middle of the Arctic tundra at night…. very quiet. I looked down and realized I had a new friend. In front of me, less than 20 feet away, was a very large, black wolf.

Alaska wolves can be five to seven feet nose to tail. I am unsure exactly how big this wolf was. I once encountered a mastiff hound in the Italian Alps; this wolf was larger. He was looking right at me. My eyes adjusted to the dark, I didn't need a flashlight to see the wolf’s face and eyes. I didn’t move a muscle. Two more wolves flanked the first wolf. They were big also. I didn't turn my head to see the other wolves in the pack, which I was certain were right and left out of my peripheral vision. They looked at me; I looked at them. No malice, no menance, just curiosity. 

I tried to remember the briefing from my dangerous wildlife training: was I to look the wolf in the eye or down and away? Which was it, shit? Brain freeze, literally. It didn't matter. I blinked and the wolves were gone. No sound. No sound at all. Just vanished into the night. I stood still, for a time, until I started getting cold. The next morning the tent and the snow cat were circled by wolf tracks … a lot of wolf tracks. Fortunately, wolves appeared to be well fed in these parts!

At the edge of the world wolves and bears were the masters, not man. I had spent two days travelling through the middle of nowhere, to the edge of the world, and lived.

Urban Sketching Workshop 

with Wil Bosbyshell

Discover the joy of urban sketching in this hands-on, outdoor workshop hosted by Presson Gallery.

Saturday, Feb 21st, 2026, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Presson Gallery – Downtown Monroe, North Carolina

$40 per adult, with children eligible for a $25 discounted rate when registered with an adult.

Sketch your way through downtown Monroe on a guided walk with artist Wil—no experience needed, just curiosity. The workshop fee is $40 per adult, with children eligible for a $25 discounted rate when registered with an adult. To reserve a child spot at the discounted rate, please contact Presson Gallery directly by phone, message, or email. Payment for parent and child tickets may be made at the time of the workshop. Please see full workshop details on website.

REGISTER

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Wil & Maura Bosbyshell

 

Dear Friends and Family:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Wil & Maura Bosbyshell.

Here are highlights of 2025. We travelled to France where Maura had an artist residency in Provence. She developed a French inspired wallpaper and fabric series at Mason de Beaumont. We also visited Nice, Marseilles, Orange and St. Raphael.

We attended a double Bosbyshell baby shower in Fort Worth Texas, pictured: Ron, Yolanda, Andee, Ben Rule, Zach, Chelsea and baby Finley. Not pictured is Sophie who arrived after the event.

Fort Worth is full of art as well as Bosbyshells! We are total museum nerds and visited four amazing art museums and the John Wayne Musuem. My sister Frances and her husband Al joined us on this trip.

It was a joy to visit with newlyweds Ember and Allen Bosbyshell in Athens, Atlanta, and Tybee Island Georgia.

Wil’s Climate Conversation Tree drawings traveled to St. Bonaventure College in New York. The solo exhibition was wonderful, especially due to the help of my good friends Robin and Ray Valeri!  

May joy, family, and friends fill your heart this Christmas!

Your Friends, Wil and Maura 

 

Maura in Nice Old Town

Maura and Wil in Marseille

Wil and Maura at Atlantic Beach

Ember and Allen Bosbyshell celebrate their 1^st wedding anniversary

Maura’s wallpaper pattern: Arch Toile inspired by the 

roman ruins in Nice France

One of Wil’s Climate Conversation drawings

Life Time Achievement Award - Wil Bosbyshell

 
Life Time Achievement Award - Wil Bosbyshell

Queens City Art (formerly The Charlotte Art League) award its 1st Lifetime Achievement award to Wil Bosbyshell for over 30 years of service in a variety of capacities and roles. Wil was a studio member in all three of our locations.

I am honored and humbled by the Lifetime Achievement Award given me last night at the unveiling of the new Queens City Arts organization. The former Charlotte Art League allowed and supported me to become a professional artist in the mid-1990s. I maintained my studio at the Charlotte Art League for over 30 years in three locations. Thank you to all my friends, current and past members, current and past directors / board members. You are the best!

 

THE ART OF THE MATTER

By: Amy Lynch

From New Orleans to New York, and from Charlotte to Chicago, Phi Kappa Psi Brothers of all ages are making their creative mark in meaningful ways through gallery exhibitions, at art studios and in private collections across the country — and even around the world.

Recognizing fellow ROTC members in the Fraternity was what initially swayed Wil Bosbyshell Georgia ’80 to pledge Phi Kappa Psi as an undergraduate. In the years that followed, he found ample brotherly support not only for his service commitments, but also for his art studies.

Bobyshell

“It was exciting and great fun to live at the house during my junior and senior years,” he said.

In an unexpected turn of events, Wil found out he was a legacy and didn’t even know it.

“My father was a Phi Psi at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania back in the 1950s,” he laughed. “It wasn’t until after I told him I’d pledged Phi Psi that he said, ‘Oh, I was a Phi Psi, too!’ We’d somehow missed that.”

Bosbyshell proudly supporting Georgia Alpha

After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1983, Wil served six years in the United States Army with stations in Alaska and Savannah, Georgia, before returning to the University of Georgia to earn a master’s degree in 1990.

“We had a Tutor-in-Residence Scholarship at the time,” he said. “As a graduate student, it paid my rent to live in the house and take on the role of resident graduate assistant for the Fraternity. Basically, I was a house father.”

A business career came next, and then an art residency at the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest. In 1993, Wil moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to work as a graphic designer, later opening his own studio in the North Davidson Arts District.

These days, he continues to exhibit his work and teaches at local and technical community colleges. He also remains in close touch with two generations of Phi Psi Brothers from his stints in the UGA house. He even played a role in helping to construct a new residence for the chapter in 2015.

One of Bobyshell’s Climate Conversation drawings

“Some of my best friends in college were my Brothers at the Fraternity, and they’re still my best friends,” he said. “As a past president and current secretary of the Georgia Alpha House Corp., I’ve also made new friends with other Phi Psi alumni.”

Self-proclaimed absurdist painter Gunner Dongieux Stanford ’18 is also going places through his art. Born and raised in New Orleans, Gunner ventured west to attend Stanford University after a post-high school gap year. Like Wil, he says the friends he made through Phi Kappa Psi remain his closest contacts.

Dongieux

“Four of us lived together in the top room of the house called the quad,” Gunner said. “One’s now in Germany, one’s in New York and one’s in L.A., and we still check in with each other all the time.”

In addition to the lasting friendships he made in the house, Gunner credits his role as Fraternity chaplain with helping him to improve his public speaking and leadership skills. After graduating in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in art practice, Gunner moved to New York City where he now operates a collaborative project space called Pop Gun, which he runs with his girlfriend out of their Brooklyn apartment. Networking with Phi Psi Brothers and attending alumni events has proved invaluable in furthering his art career.

“Most of my collectors have come through those connections,” he acknowledged. “My fellow Phi Psis have commissioned my paintings and road-tripped to see my shows and exhibitions. They’ve really been supportive of me in a lot of different ways.”

Next up for Gunner: grad school in Hamburg, Germany, where he plans to study painting and pave the way for a professorship down the road. As for the long-term future, who knows?

“My dad says that if you grew up in New Orleans, you’ll always find your way back there,” Gunner said. “Hopefully there will be some Phi Psis around! College isn’t so much about the classes you take. It’s more about the people you meet and the relationships you create. That’s definitely what Phi Psi is for me.”

A second-year student at the University of Toledo, Duncan McLean Toledo ’23 is still discovering and honing his artistic style, working with natural inspiration and exploring movement in still objects.

McLean

“I prefer to work in ceramic media through wheel-thrown, slab-built and sculptural work,” he explained.

Duncan admitted he wasn’t all that keen on the concept of Greek life when he started college, but the Phi Kappa Psis he met during Rush changed his mind.

“I knew that this was a place where I would feel welcome and pushed to become the best version of myself, while also gaining valuable leadership skills,” he said. “Phi Psi has shaped my college experience through friendships, networking and opportunities to become involved on campus, allowing me to grow socially and intellectually.”

As Duncan continues to work toward an Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts with a 3-D concentration, he said he’s grateful for ongoing encouragement from his Phi Psi Brothers.

“The Fraternity has definitely influenced my art, and I often ask the people around me for ideas and critiques,” he said. “They typically respond with overwhelming support.”

At first, Duncan viewed Brotherhood as a pathway to becoming more engaged with the campus and Toledo community. While that holds true, he said he has an increasingly greater respect and appreciation for the values fraternity life has instilled, even beyond the bonds of Phi Psi itself.

“Being active in Greek life has become a way for me to make instant connections,” he explained. “I learned my sculpture professor and Honors program mentor was a Sigma Phi Epsilon at Toledo 30 or so years ago. The simple fact that we both were and are part of UT Greek life has helped us to connect and opened opportunities for me.”

Open Studio - Sun Series

 

Dual Open Studios - Sun Series

Wil & Maura Bosbyshell

Hart-Witzen Gallery & Studios, 2422 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28206 (Tryon and 28th St.)

Saturday, October 25, 6 to 9 PM

My Sun Series of silk screens and block prints will be on display. These are my attempts at capturing the magic of the Alaska Sun during the Summer Solstice. On the day, the sun never sets, it just grazes the horizon. 

All the suns are priced at $340. Size: 10 x 10 square and 10 x 8.