Check Out Will Barker’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Barker.

Hi Will, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I was always a talented drawer, but never really considered myself an artist until my mid 20’s. Growing up I was a sports guy, playing lacrosse and football as a young kid then onto being a four-year starter on the offensive line for the University of Virginia, and from there went on to play in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins. It wasn’t until my third season in the league that I decided that I was unfulfilled in this current life and decided to make a risky change.

I decided to start focusing on art more and developing as a painter. I started with acrylics, then watercolors, settling on oil painting, and eventually focusing on murals as well. I had odd jobs here and there to pay the bills, my longest stint being a production manager at Mile High Spirits in downtown Denver for 4 years, but I was always painting. I did the dog and landscape commissions for extra cash but was always exploring my own creative ambitions and style when I could.

It wasn’t until the pandemic that I was able to focus all my attention on my art career with nothing else to do. I went all in and haven’t looked back since. I spend the colder months hunkered down in my studio in Globeville working on my fine art with a focus on contemporary Western themes and the nicer parts of the year outside doing large-scale murals both in and around Colorado as well as across the country from Los Angeles to Georgia.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a full-time artist is always a struggle to some degree. It is a constant grind to find jobs and opportunities. Sometimes they find me which is nice, but with that challenge comes inconsistent income or waves of jobs followed by some lulls.

Denver is also an amazing hub of artists and murals which is awesome and I am so proud to be a part of that scene, but with that also comes a lot of competition for work. At the end of the day, I cannot complain. I am successful and busy enough to not have to regret my decision to take on art full-time. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, anywhere else and I am thankful for that.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I really love working on and exploring my current focus which is Western art with some untraditional approaches, even from a fine art perspective. Living in Colorado is a constant inspiration from the rugged mountains and poetic landscapes to the history and folklore that tell the story of the Rocky Mountain region. It is easy to pull inspiration from that and create scenes in my work that tell a story through action, detail, humor, and sometimes violence.

My process starts with a story I want to tell and I work it out from my imagination. I decide how I want to present it, who the characters will be, and what they will be doing before even starting a sketch. Sometimes I know it will take place over a series of paintings or with one unique piece, whether on canvas or on a large wall. I like to think of a moment in time, captured in the work that tells so much to the viewer through emotion, body language, lots of action, setting, etc.

I generally use a slightly muted or matte color palette to further give the impression of olden times in the Wild West. Although I do all kinds of mural work from corporate office design to project-specific themes (like in a public call for art for bigger clients and cities), I like to stick to Western storytelling when I have my own artistic license to paint what I want. I think my style is unique in the public art realm and stands out even in the Western cities where they reside.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
It is hard to say that I am a risk taker with my art. I am really my most comfortable when working on my craft and generally stick to the mediums that I know best, oil and spray paints respectively. At this point in my career, I am knowledgeable and confident enough to just go out there and do it regardless of size and composition, but painting is also a sort of therapy for me that I look forward to.

Although I have worked with other artists on big and small projects in the past, at the end of the day it is just me and the wall (or canvas) in front of me. I make my own time, my own goals, and have nothing but my creative process to work out which I really enjoy from project conception to final strokes. I guess the biggest risk I feel recently is taking murals out of state. Sometimes it is hard to work with a client that is far away, especially if you haven’t visited the site or can’t quite meet on a vision.

With that, shipping all your paint and supplies can sometimes just be an educated guess as to what you will actually need and use, and not every city has a good supplier of the paint you need if you run out. With those jobs usually comes a higher price tag including travel expenses and lodging which can add up and a specific time frame which can be hard to pin down with all the other factors, something that is usually not an issue locally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.willbarkerart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willbarker.art/