Merry Christmas from the Wil, Maura and Allen Bosbyshell

 May the light and joy of Christmas shine on you, your family and all you do! 

Allen is the manager of Lawrence House in the uptown Neighborhood of Chicago. It is a restored art deco retirement hotel built in the 1920s now studio apartments. 

The Mayor of Glennville (or How I got the nickname Puke Boot)

The Mayor of Glennville (or How I got the nickname Puke Boot)

story by Wil Bosbyshell

painting by Wilma R. King

story compilation: Bullets and Bandaids volume 3: What Now? 

I was a Captain in the Field Artillery assigned to Fort Stewart Georgia near Savannah. A new Lt Colonel had just taken command of the battalion while we were in the National Training Center at Fort Irwin California. His name was Lt. Colonel Warner, and he was one of the great leaders I had the pleasure to serve under while I was in the US Army. Just like Captain Kirk did on the Enterprise when he began his command, Lt Col. Warner called each of his officers in for an interview to learn their capabilities or, in my case, weaknesses.

During our interview he asked where I was from. I told him that I was from Florida, but my family was from Savannah and that I would be buried in nearby Bonaventure Cemetery. I added that I had graduated from the University of Georgia that was about four hours away from Savannah.

When Lt. Colonel Warner heard this, he was excited. He said very few officers in our unit were from this area and that I was a native in his eyes. “Captain Bosbyshell, I have a job for you. You are going to be the liaison officer to the town of Glennville.” So that is how I became the “Mayor of Glennville.” I wasn't really the mayor but that was one of the many nicknames my fellow officers and sergeants referred to me as. Officers called me that to my face, sergeants behind my back.

My job as liaison officer to Glennville involved going to various meetings of the Chamber of Commerce and responding to requests. If Glennville wanted a tank for the 4th of July parade, I oversaw getting it there from an armor unit. If a state Senator from the capital came to visit Glennville and they needed a color guard, I was in charge of arranging it. If an elementary school teacher needed a guest speaker from the military for career day, I was to find the right person. It was actually very fun.

One morning I received a call from the President of the Bank of Glennville. He was also the Scoutmaster of the Glennville Boy Scout troop. He asked if the boys could fly onto Fort Stewart shoot machine guns, drive tanks and generally play army for the day. This was a bold request! I had never heard of an outing like this before. I told him that it was probably a long shot, but I would ask the general.

In my job as the liaison to Glennville I reported directly to the general of the post. However, in observation of the chain of command, I went to see my boss Major Soltas and told him of the request from the Glennville bank president and scoutmaster. He broke into a chuckle, “Col Warner has to see this.” Major Soltas ran the operations for the Artillery Battalion and he had unlimited patience to lead all his very young and head-strong men.

He and I walked to Lt. Col Warner’s office and told him of the request. Lt. Col Warner broke into hysterical laughter and said, “CPT. Bosbyshell, there is no way this is going to happen.” However, he said it was my job to forward Glennville’s request to the general. If the general wants to turn it down that would be his prerogative.

There was no email or internet, so I typed (on a typewriter) a quick memo to the general's adjutant outlining what the bank president had requested. I didn't spend a lot of time on the memo, it was short, as I was sure it would be turned down.

To my surprise I got a response in about 45 minutes of my delivering the memo to the general. The adjutant called me to say that indeed The 24th Infantry Division would be glad to host the scout troop for a day of military fun on Ft. Stewart.

Even in 1986, I was surprised. After 2001 and 9-11 this would have never been allowed. Unknown to me at the time, but later revealed in the local newspaper, a unit of Rangers had just destroyed a local drinking establishment (translation strip bar) and the general was looking for a positive public relations win.

On the designated Saturday, I boarded a Chinook helicopter, took off from Pope Air Force Base and flew to Glennville. The Chinook helicopter landed in the bank parking lot, which was surrounded, by telephone and high-tension power lines. I couldn't believe the accuracy of the landing. We lowered the ramp and the Boy Scouts piled in. We flew to Fort Stewart landed in one of the training areas and preceded with a full morning of military training.

Each boy got to fire a shotgun and some of the older boys were allowed to fire an M-16 rifle with blanks and laser tag equipment. I was unable to secure an actual M1 tank for them to fire or ride in, however I was able to secure a Sheraton light armored tank for them to ride around in. Then, each boy was able to drive and ride in an M113 armored personnel carrier.

Halfway through the day, at lunch, is when I made the mistake. I have mentioned before in other stories that the protagonist, usually me, makes a mistake and this makes the story interesting (read usually dangerous).

In between firing the M16 with blanks and riding in the Sheraton light tank we stopped and had lunch. Lunch consisted of the famous army MRE or “meal-ready to eat.” The boys loved the MREs. However as anyone who has been in the army and eaten an MRE knows, the meals in the MRE are a little … slick. They go down easy! For example one of the main meals is ham/turkey/meat loaf. What is that anyway? No one knows. The boys had a great time inhaling without much chewing the MREs and then we finished riding around in the various vehicles.

The boys had fun, but the day was at an end. The Chinook helicopter arrived to take the Boy Scout troop back to Glennville. If you have not ridden in a Chinook helicopter, this helicopter has two propellers. One in the front and one in the back. It looks like it should not be able to fly. Riding in any helicopter has a strange sensation different from an airplane. However, riding in a helicopter with two rotors creates a very unusual set of movements. You have the normal side to side and up and down movements of any aircraft. In a Chinook you also have the strange forward and backwards movement caused by the rotors being in the front and the back.

We were in sight of the Bank of Glennville. From my vantage point standing in the middle of the passenger bay, I could see the bank parking lot out of the window. That is when the first boy puked his guts up.

Then in a truly Quentin Tarantino-esque cinematic display of synchronistic puking every boy puked the entirety of his stomach bazooka-like onto the floor. Standing in the middle of the boys getting ready to lower the tailgate of the helicopter, I was covered head to toe in puke ….especially my boots.

Proving that MREs come up as easily as they go down, the last boy finished puking his guts out all over my boots, the helicopter gently touched down and the boys ran out. Mission Accomplished!

The helicopter crew chief came back and exclaimed, with a string of multiple expletives, that I was going to “clean up all the puke”. I did, in fact, clean up all the puke on our return to the air force base. It was a lot of puke. Very chucky. Boys really do not chew their food thoroughly like they are supposed to. Not much digestion had occurred since lunch it appeared.

The Air Force General called the Army general to complain about the treatment of his aircraft. The Bank President sent letters of thanks to both generals. The boys wrote letters of thanks for the fun they had. The rangers were forgiven for destroying the bar. I was awarded the Service Above Self award by the local Rotary Chapter. And of course in hours or maybe minutes, my nickname in the artillery went from “Mayor of Glennville” to “Captain Puke Boot.”

Misty Morning on the Mountain to Sea trail

This is one of those paintings where everything went well. 1st, the hike on the Mountain to Sea trail was beautiful. Next, back in my studio each part of this painting came out great. The background has many layers, the tree line fades in and out of view, and the fallen limbs have a wet feeling. Perfect. This is a framed watercolor painting, 8 x 10 for $490. You can see the trail blaze on the tree second to the right. 

 

Thanks to Everyone! - Fall Open Studio

 The Open House was great fun. A big thanks to everyone who stopped by. I sold quite a few paintings and drawings. I will post what is still available after Thanksgiving. It was fun to chat with so many folks about art. Maura even had some of her new pillows on display. 

The drawing above is from the Mountain to Sea Trail in North Carolina. You can see the trail blaze, a white circle, on the leftmost tree. It is still available. It is a graphite drawing 8 x 11, framed, $390 plus shipping. 

Fall Open Studio - Next Weekend!

Join me for my Fall Open Studio on Saturday November 13th (12 to 5) and Sunday 14th (12 to 4). I will have many, many drawings and paintings on display and for sale. My studio is in the McColl Center on the 3rd floor. Address: 721 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202. Park on Tryon Street or behind Charlotte Ballet.

See you there!

Climate Conversation drawings. 

Cityscape paintings. Above South End at Flower Child.

Cityscape paintings. Above South End Hawkers. 

North Carolina trail drawings. Waynesville, NC

North Carolina color pencil drawings. Blue Ridge Parkway field, also on the Mountain to Sea Trail. 

North Carolina color pencil drawings. Wedding Tree, Laurel Springs, NC. 

North Carolina paintings.  Blue Ridge Parkway field, also on the Mountain to Sea Trail. 

   

Drawing 15 Complete!

This is drawing 15 in the Tree Series I am working on. It is part of a future exhibit I am calling Climate Conversations. This is 22 x 30 on printing paper. 

The left edge of the tree is almost lost and very light in value. The tree has a very scarred texture. Looks like many nails were driven into the tree in the past. Many circular marks as well that I found fascinating. This was a combination of trees on the Penland Property. 

Leadership through Art & Humor!

While serving as Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 1 in Charlotte NC, I did these cartoons of the Troop's outings. These "awards" were called the funny awards though many were serious. Each outing had a "Scout Spirit" and "Leadership" award. The boys in the senior leadership patrol would come up with the funny events of the outing on the car ride back to the church. I would draw up a humorous depiction of the events in sharpie on copy paper. Then the awards were given out at the next meeting. The awards encouraged many things: event attendance, positive remembrance of each event, esprit de corps among the boy and adult leaders, and scout spirit. A side effect was positive behavior modification. If a boy who had grown up car sick got the "1st to Spew" award, he quickly outgrew that habit. The word for vomit changed for every outing, but no boy ever earned it twice. 

One of the other Assistance Scoutmasters was mystified by the awards. "Wil, none of these awards are accurate to the facts," he said. "The point is not factual accuracy," I replied, "being silly while encouraging scout skills is." The funny awards was a way to teach scouting skills to the boys without lecturing or preaching. And many were side splittingly funny! 

The troop forgot to bring even one tent on this trip. 

Fun hike to the cow graveyard! 

Torrential rain! Again! 

The troop did not bring one metal pot to cook the freeze dried food in . Fortunately two boys had old timely metal mess kits from the army. 

The famous Powaconda appeared and terrorized the troop! 

Snow hike!

Bears chased new scouts. 

 

Climate Conversation Exhibit

The 1st of many Climate Conversation Exhibits. The McColl Center Take-Over show allowed me to test out a few parts of the concept. This included drawings, 3D public interaction, fiber and process sketches. Eventually I would like this to be a group exhibit with other artist interested in climate issues. 

Large fiber pieces. 

Public interaction about how climate effected folks or their favorite memory of a tree in their life. 

 

Preview of Studio Artist Take-Over Exhibit Thursday September 30 from 6 to 8 PM

Studio Artist Take-Over preview video! Join me for a Studio Artist Take-Over Exhibit Thursday September 30 from 6 to 8 PM at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation! 

Drawing Demo using simple texture you can find from Home!

 Drawing Demo using simple texture you can find from Home! 

Studio Tour

Go on a tour of my studio and see my latest Tree Series drawings. 

Experimenting with Paper

This is an experiment in paper with one of my tree series drawings. Usually I use sketch paper, but this is printing paper which is much thicker than sketch paper. Because of the thickness the initial step of rubbing texture from the tree is more subtle than my past drawings. This drawing is coming out with less dark values, interesting. We will see what happens. 

Large Scale Tree Series drawing in the works!

This is a 3 x 4 foot drawing on sketch paper which is in process. It's about 50% complete. I began this drawing in Penland and have continued working on it at my studio at the McColl Center. This is the largest drawing I have done in this series to date. 

 

Tour of my studio at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation

 

Studio at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation

My studio at the MCcoll Center is just awesome. It is in te re-purposed church in uptown Charlotte. Great space. My studio is on the 3rd floor. 

 

Cityscapes of Charlotte - A New Series

 

Here is my new series of Charlotte Cityscapes. The series has 10 paintings. The entire series are 8 x 10 monoprints on paper with watercolor and colored pencil. The above painting is the Common Market in South End. They have the best pimento cheese sandwich in town! It's great how you can see through the building structure. All paintings are $190 plus shipping. Three have already found new homes in private collections. 

 Camp North End at dusk. The water tower at Camp North End is massive. I need to do a paintings of the Gamma Goat truck from the Army located on the property. 

Meredith Connelly's mushroom sculpture at Tremont and Camden. Sullivan's restaurant in the background. 

Hawkers at dusk! 

Cabo Fish Taco early evening! I like the distorted perspective in the cross walks. 

Meredith Connelly's sculpture from another view. This is in South End Charlotte near Atherton Mill.

Flower Child at sunset. The old Charlotte Art League in the background. 

Uptown from NODA. SOLD

Light rail dusk. SOLD

Cabo Fish Taco with a little memorial day flair! People just love the food here. SOLD