Lee Baldwin visits Darryl Willison Jr.

An Original Take on Cowboy Art

By Lee Baldwin, June, 2005

Whimsey, mayhem, and satire all describe the work of Darryl Willison, New Mexico cowboy artist. Or, in his own words, Willison likens his fanciful illustrations of the Old West to "Roy Rogers meets the Beatles."

With exaggerated forms, huge cowboy hats, dramatic poses and brilliant colors, Willison has set out to recapture the values of yesteryear's cowboy legends, and introduce those heroic virtues to a younger generation. An admirer of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Tom Mix and Rex Allen, Willison relates hero worship and simpler times via his personal sense of madcap humor, which, in his words, "crosses all boundaries."

At first the images appear simple, almost a bit silly, but Willison's method is well conceived, his toolkit spare, deft, and direct. Consider the fact that his characters have no faces. The artist noticed that the lack of facial features allows a viewer to step into the image mentally and be a part of it. Viewers can personalize the scene's meaning to their imagination.



LEFT: Blazing Heat
18 in. X 16 in. Pastel on paper
Highly decked-out Cowboy bandit with matching six-guns ablaze. Note the wonderful detail of the feathered chaps, tooled leather gloves.

Consider also the interior framing in some images, loose rectangles of dark border lines the artist calls 'windows.' In his mind's eye, Willison's characters can come and go through these openings as they please, creating art events on paper, each with a past, present and future. Although the images are still, Willison's touch imparts action.

Willison is trying to recreate what Gene and Roy stood for, recall the values of a definitive era of American history and revive those heroic examples for today's kids. Through his refreshing and honest work, Willison consciously strives to echo the personal values of the Old West: be yourself, respect others, be a friend.

The images and droll gags are from Willison's imagination. He is inspired by vintage Western movie posters, stories, and ballads, to which he brings operatic body language, bright color, and exaggerated forms. The enormous cowboy hats are one's first clue to the broad humor of his caricatures, which although comic, nevertheless communicate a depth of heart.

Clearly this is a minimalist art form, and Willison asked himself, "How much information do I need to communicate a moment?" The backgrounds and emphatic poses strongly imply a past, and a future—we sense the characters are from somewhere, and are on their way somewhere.


RIGHT: The Prescott Kid
39 in. X 31 in. Pastel on paper
Harking back to movie posters of old, this character appears ready for action and nearly obscures the lettering in his honor.

The drawings are suggestive of cartoon cels, those single-frame images from an animation sequence. And Willison's art is indeed destined for the small screen. Working with a producer of computer-generated 3D video, Willison has created a mix of live action and animation for pre-school kids which reflects the Hollywood Cowboy legends, and reaffirms the Cowboy values. You can see a trailer for this DVD series at www.cowboyrex.com.

Way back when, Willison earned a degree in commercial art, and worked in Austin, Texas designing corporate logos, advertisements, and T-shirts. While in Austin, he felt that folks there looked at cowboys as though from another planet, and the contrast suggested to Willison the importance of outlandish perspective. The T-shirt design work led him to the poses and forms he employs today.

Willison's smaller pieces are Prismacolor pencil, sometimes overlaid with acrylic paint. His larger works are soft pastel. He is self-taught in both media. Willison knows he's not a Frederick Remington or a Charles Russell, he simply draws what makes him happy.

Such modesty is, in this observer's opinion, emblematic of the Cowboy Code that Willison wishes to impart, and his artwork may one day achieve similar stature in its own right.

You can see more of Darryl Willison's work at:

www.americasdrawingcowboy.com
www.cowboyrex.com

Artistic Images Gallery
123 S. Cortez St.
Prescott, AZ 86303
928 778 5155

Dry Heat Trading Co.
6541 E.Tanque Verde Rd. #27
Tucson, AZ 85715
520 733 2499

Joan Cawley Gallery
7135 Main St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
480 947 3548
www.jcgltd.com