Will cole -- pen and ink
Over the course of decades, cradled in an overstuffed easy chair, sketchbook in hand, Will Cole would pick up inexpensive ballpoint pens and let his imagination ramble. What emerged over time is a treasure trove of pen and ink drawings that open the door to a unique realm of imagination that flowed unchecked for fifty years.
Fantastical, whimsical, imaginative, amusing, surreal, even a little dark sometimes, these images are always an open invitation for viewers to get involved. A frequent refrain from those who see these drawings is: "This has to be from a story. Why is that bear talking to those fish? What's that mouse telling the dragon? What are the owls discussing with that crab?" Whatever it is, it's definitely something more than: "I'm so very glad you accepted our dinner invitation."
The bittersweet part of the story is that when his wife passed away four years before he did, his pen and ink work also died. Dorothy was his resident critic and definitely his muse. In a way, each of the many hundreds of drawings he did were dedicated to her and was part of their communication through the more than seventy years that they were married.
Fantastical, whimsical, imaginative, amusing, surreal, even a little dark sometimes, these images are always an open invitation for viewers to get involved. A frequent refrain from those who see these drawings is: "This has to be from a story. Why is that bear talking to those fish? What's that mouse telling the dragon? What are the owls discussing with that crab?" Whatever it is, it's definitely something more than: "I'm so very glad you accepted our dinner invitation."
The bittersweet part of the story is that when his wife passed away four years before he did, his pen and ink work also died. Dorothy was his resident critic and definitely his muse. In a way, each of the many hundreds of drawings he did were dedicated to her and was part of their communication through the more than seventy years that they were married.
