Artist Owen Wills on How Peace Exists Outside of the Status Quo
Updated: 6 days ago
For Owen Wills, becoming an artist meant choosing the uncomfortable route. From studying painting and drawing to working as a sign painter in New York City, Wills has continued to follow a path that asks him to question the status quo. That same willingness can be felt in his approach to painting.
His practice of meditation and Buddhism has empowered him to find peace during seasons of intensity, while spending time outdoors has given him another way to reconnect with what feels real. Whether he is hiking through the Sierras or standing in front of a canvas, Wills seems drawn to experiences that ask him to dig deep.
In this conversation, we talk art, meditation, Buddhism, backpacking, and what he hopes viewers walk away with after engaging with his work.
Selfless Art: Let’s start with a fun icebreaker: If you had to paint either a miserable moment or one of your happiest from a recent backpacking trip, which would you choose, and why?
Owen Wills: My latest trek was through the high Sierras on the John Muir Trail last summer, a gorgeous but brutal 10 day haul with some old friends. There are always great photos from these trips, it’s hard not to generate a lot of images when you are experiencing life off the grid, the vistas of the West Coast are inherently so majestic. What comes to mind for me though was a really insane and funny moment where, coming down from a pass, we walked through what must have been a mosquito breeding ground in full force. I’ve done a lot of hiking in buggy areas, but I have never experienced anything like this; inhaling bugs when I breathed, bugs in my eyes, I could wipe my hand down my leg and kill probably 100 mosquitos, and there would be 100 more to take their place a moment later. Of course we ran away as fast as possible and no pictures were taken, but I think a person sprinting through the mountains with a million mosquitos on them would make an incredible painting.
Selfless Art: Can you share a bit about your background and how you came to be an artist?
Owen Wills: I grew up in rural Wisconsin, a few miles outside of a town of 300 people. I started drawing and painting pretty young, probably 4 or 5 years old, and my family truly supported and encouraged that. I will give my parents credit for being really cultured people considering where I was being raised. They made sure we traveled a lot, we had great art on our walls, I remember I would spend hours looking at books of paintings by Marc Chagall and fellow Wisconsinite Georgia O’Keeffe. I think for whatever reason I grew up being really skeptical of the status quo. I pushed away the idea that you had to live a certain way, and that allowed me to think a little bit more freely about what kind of degree I may want to get or what kind of job I would pursue. I chose the uncomfortable route and got my BFA in painting and drawing because that felt natural to my interests, and after school I was fairly lucky and found a job as a sign painter in New York City. I think enveloping my fine arts background in a blue collar tradition, a really humbling dedication to craftsmanship, pushed me to a much higher potential as a painter.
Selfless Art: You were introduced to Buddhism when you were young and later returned to it. What drew you back to those principles, and how do they show up in your work today?
Owen Wills: Maybe this returns to my previous statement about being a very skeptical person. I grew up surrounded by Catholics, most of whom were amazing people to be fair, but there were a lot of ideologies like inherent sin and guilt that didn’t add up to me. My mom was raised Catholic as well, but also happened to have Buddha statues around the house, I have a very vivid memory of a dharma wheel magnet on our fridge that I would stare at, as well as Tibetan prayer flags lining our outdoor patio. So I think by the time I was old enough to start considering philosophies and the big whys of life, I was drawn towards a lot of Buddhist ideas. I think the pursuit of ending suffering is super universal at the end of the day, or at least I hope it is. It seems like a really natural and straightforward idea to me; to see that we are all suffering, that it is inevitable, and to want to try to find peace or freedom from that. I also think the Buddhist ideas of mindfulness are really potent to me as a painter. Taking a moment to think harder about our reality, to be conscious of the ways we are thinking, acting, and impacting those around us, this is also what painters are about at the end of the day. When I moved to New York I was incredibly overwhelmed by the speed and intensity of life there compared to the slow pace of the Midwest. I was working insane hours to pay insane rents, everything seemed really hard and uncomfortable to me, and at my lowest point I started listening to The Way Out is In podcast, following the teachings of Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The episodes were focused on impermanence, healing suffering, appreciating the small things, and they brought me back to myself. I was able to find the beauty in the hard moments again, the perspective to shift my life in a more positive direction. And the ideas absolutely did end up permeating my paintings as well. The style shifted in a softer and deeper direction. I started allowing myself to slow down and appreciate the act of painting as a meditation, a moment to pour myself into something that isn’t all about me.
Selfless Art: Between painting, photography, and being outdoors, you spend a lot of time observing. Do you ever catch yourself questioning your own sense of reality?
Owen Wills: With our trajectory of current events, the AI revolution, rampant social media addiction, and apathy towards the horrors our government is committing, I feel more worried about everyone else’s sense of reality than my own. Making art and being outdoors is probably one of the realest things a person could be doing these days. To be fair, yes I’m probably in my head too much and have paranoid delusions like the next guy, but it’s when I’m looking around for a beautiful moment or touching grass that I feel broken out of that spell, and most in touch with the truest of realities. If backpacking thousands of miles has taught me anything, it’s that city life these days is a lot closer to a post-structuralist hyperreality than anything natural, and we need to hold on to ideas that ground us.
Selfless Art: Your work asks for the viewer’s undivided attention, with mundane moments as your subjects. Would you say this can be seen as a form of meditation? Why or why not?
Owen Wills: Meditating in Zen Buddhism at it’s base level is an attempt to push thoughts out of your head, so while the mechanical activity of painting can feel super meditative to me, I think observing art is often more engaged than that. I feel committed to not expecting anything specific from a person observing something I made. Whether or not you move through the world with intention and mindfulness is truly your own prerogative, but I hope that I can paint something in a way that makes somebody slow down, or feel peaceful and introspective. So I slow down, I try to paint peacefully, and imbue my work with a sense of care, because we need to lead by example. If I am successful in making somebody stop, and think about something smaller than themselves for a moment, or just appreciate something and breathe, that would make me really happy.
Selfless Art: When we first talked, you mentioned wanting to go further with your work. What do you imagine is waiting for you on the other side of that?
Owen Wills: I just want to push myself to work more, dedicate more time to my craft, trust that my ideas will take me somewhere special. I’ve never had the opportunity to be a full-time artist, and it’s reasonable to keep your craft going with a day job, but lately I’ve wondered about that career propulsion in a “chicken or egg” kind of way. Maybe sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to get to that next level. Regardless of what my future looks like I just want to keep working at my craft and become a better painter, I think that goes for the conceptual side of the craft as well as technical. I’ve always had the idea that if I can make something so good that it’s undeniable, that success will follow. If that’s not a pipe dream I don't know what is, but what is life if we don't have a goal to shoot for.
Selfless Art: Fill in the blank: Without realizing it, my work has revealed about me.
Owen Wills: deep truths
For Wills, making art is more than creating a beautiful painting. It is a meditative practice, one that allows him to slow down and engage with the world within. Meditation and Buddhism have given him a way to approach intense seasons with calm and ease, while time spent outdoors continues to remind him that life = presence.
Perhaps that is where the uncomfortable route leads: not to an easier life, but to a life that feels more honest. And as he questions whether to take the plunge to become a full-time artist, one thing is certain: the answer lies in him continuing to look, question, and push against the status quo.
To see more of Owen Will's incredible work and stay updated on his latest projects, be sure to follow him on Instagram and visit the his website.
DISCLAIMER:
The personal views, opinions, and perspectives expressed by artists featured, interviewed, or presented on this site are solely those of the respective individuals. They do not reflect the views, beliefs, or opinions of Selfless Art Gallery, its staff, or affiliates.
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