I recently had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Chicago native/NYC based artist Anthony Wills Jr., who’s philosophy on art is just as intriguing as his modern portraits! His goal, through his art, is to encourage viewers to take a journey, in which they recall a memory or reclaim some thought, dream, desire, feeling, etc. that perhaps has been discarded, and then realize the beauty in it. He hopes that viewers will see, as he does, that the portraits he paints are of us all – they depict who we are, were, might be, or may have been. Call me shallow, but this can’t be my portrait – my forehead aint that big and my arms are much more toned – and please tell me my chest doesn’t sag that much!
As a storyteller, Wills creates his works with a beginning, middle, and end, where subjects have been stripped of extraneous details to reveal struggle (whoa, heavy). Hope you enjoy his story as much as I do – do you see yourself in his work?…
