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LIVING OUT HIS DREAM: WIL LOVES TO DRAW

By Kristopher Upjohn/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Monday, September 8, 2008 9:58 AM CDT

“I’m just one of those guys who doodled all his life since he was old enough to hold a crayon.”

Every artist has to start somewhere. What’s important is that for Wil Love of Pine Bluff, it didn’t stop there. His day job may be at the Carpet Barn, but his passion is art. Surprisingly, though, it’s a passion that has only come to fruition in the last few years. During a “rough phase” of his life a couple of years ago, he decided to quit fiddling around with his pen and to “sit down and try to apply myself for once.” In those two years, Love has honed his craft, and even diversified. He has developed his pen-and-ink style and has also branched out into painting.

“If you play guitar, you don’t want to limit yourself to rock-and-roll,” said Love, who plays guitar. “I’m still finding what I can do.”

And he’s discovering that different mediums allow different sides of himself to arise. Of his pen-and-ink work, he said, “The style I’ve developed leans more toward R. Crumb.” (Robert Crumb is a distinctive underground comic artist known for, among other things, working with Harvey Pekar on the acclaimed “American Splendor” comic book. Crumb was the titular subject of a Terry Zwigoff documentary.) He also cites the influence of one of his best friends, Zac Ray.

Despite the stylized bent of his pen-and-ink drawings, realism and detail are part and parcel of Love’s style. Painting has allowed him to further explore realism.

Recently, he tried his hand at that medium for the first time. Thinking big, his first attempt was a mural on a wall at the Children’s Advocacy Center, located in the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center in downtown Pine Bluff. He was approached for the job by the center’s Christa Menotti.

“Wil and I went to school together,” she said. She always encouraged him, Menotti said. Her faith in him was the ultimate encouragement. “He came to mind because he was such a wonderful artist in high school.” For Love, it was not only encouragement — it was also a challenge. “I knew that I could do it,” he said, “but I’d never painted in my life.”

Menotti’s faith paid off: “The mural was wonderful. It is absolutely beautiful.”

That mural has proven to be only one opportunity for Wil. Doors are opening everywhere. “I’ve been at the right place at the right time,” he said.

One of those opportunities has seen the dovetailing of his love of art and love of music. South 61, which Love describes as “one of the biggest up-and-coming bands in Arkansas,” tapped him to produce show posters for them — a chance for Love to further expand his eclecticism.

“What I do is traditional 60s-style psychedelic rock art with a twist,” he said. The posters were a hit with South 61 and concert-goers.

“He’s absolutely out of this world,” said South 61’s Stephen Compton. “The work that he’s done for us is not your typical … photoshop project. It’s all hand-drawn.”

Love was soon approached by other Arkansas bands, including Free Verse, Damn Bullets and Cooper’s Orbit. Through Susie Carraway of Hot of the Lot, he also got hooked with national touring act, Widespread Panic. He also notes that his first ever concert poster was for Pine Bluff-Conway band The Shermans.

Lately, though, Love has heard the prairie beckon. This time, his art merged with a pair of passions — Arkansas’ prairie lands and duck hunting.

Love’s history is rooted in the prairie. His family is from the Stuttgart area and the old family farm is in Carlisle. He leapt at the chance when Stuttgart’s Wings Over the Prairie festival asked him to be the official festival artist.

He was given the shot by Sarah Herr of Arkansas Printing. “His vision as an artist really made the artwork come to life,” she said. “He can take old tradition and new tradition and put them together.” With a background in the Stuttgart area and a love for duck hunting — not to mention significant artistic talent — Love was perfect for the job.

“It’s the most exciting project I’ve been asked to do,” he said. It has even helped inspire him to revisit a series of pencil drawings he began months ago. Called “Remembering the Grand Prairie,” the drawings are depictions of uninhabited farm structures and old farming equipment in Arkansas’ prairie lands. Another effort of nostalgia aims squarely at downtown Pine Bluff. That personal project, “Main Street Vanishing,” depicts back roads, alleys and out-of-the-way nooks and crannies of Pine Bluff’s downtown area overlooked by most people — “parts of our city that have remained untouched and unchanged for a 100 years.”

Love has deep feelings about the history of his homeland and his artistic endeavors are a contribution to keeping the past alive, his way of trying to slow — even just a little bit — the fading of the past. “We’re losing a bit of our history,” he said.

By saving pieces of history through his art, Love is making his own mark on history, and on the region. He has even donated six works to the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas for its Potpourri event in December.

One may wonder how Love is able to devote so much time to his art and still hold down a full-time job. Ask him about that and he’ll tell you how much he likes his job and his boss, Rick Drewry, who allows him the flexibility to juggle carpeting and artwork in a busy schedule. In a way, Drewry’s generosity to Love is a gift to Arkansans, who benefit from Love’s preservation of their past.

In Love’s art, the people of the state and one man from Arkansas meet. In the end, maybe through the art, Arkansans learn as much about Love as they do about themselves. After all, regardless of the subject matter, art ultimately tells as much about the creator as it does the subject. “Art comes from within,” says Love. “It’s a part of your soul.”

Art is personal. That’s reflected in his life, where family has always been connected with creativity. His inspiration began with his Uncle Russell Love, a talented artist and musician. And the family connection stays strong. “My mother told me my whole life I could do it,” says Love. “But it took my wife (Rachelle) to make me believe it.”

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