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.

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