Will L. Eskridge

What’s your favorite movie? Right now I am working on some new Pop paintings focused on cinema. I am a lifelong movie fan going back to the first movie I saw in a movie theater, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Movies and filmmaking made an impact on me so much that I helped co-found a film festival 26 years ago.  That movie magic still fascinates me. I have even been an extra on a couple of films and…

I was lucky enough to live in San Francisco from 1997-1999. I didn’t have a car, as public transportation is an absolute beast there. Plus it’s a very walkable city. After couch-surfing for a year after I arrived, I landed a super small, yet amazing studio apartment on O’Farrell and Polk on the outskirts of the Tenderloin district. A bit rough around the edges, but charming…

The arrival. Something new and exciting. You’ve been saving and waiting patiently. That commitment and patience has paid off. I used to save Bazooka Joe comic wrappers. I must have chewed a thousand lbs of Bazooka Joe gum. The wrappers painstakingly, yet crudely stacked and kept together by a wide rubber band were sent off to a mysterious P.O. Box in Brooklyn, NY. 6-8 weeks later I would receive…

A triple-scoop ice cream cone — chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, neon-haloed and tilted at a confident angle — descends through a burning sunset sky like it was always meant to be here. Below, a surfer drops into the barrel of a massive curling wave. The beach ball is back. The party is on. Everyone is invited. Party Wave is the third entry in Will’s beach snack cosmology, and the stakes have…

Hovering above a neon-banded sunset sky, a glowing ice cream sandwich surveys the ocean below with the quiet authority of something that has always been there and always will be. On the water, a tiny surfer catches a breaking wave — unbothered, blessed. A sandcastle stands its ground on the shore. Sweet Swell is the second vision in Will’s ongoing beach cosmology, where the snack foods are…

A glowing Swiss Roll hangs in a vivid sunset sky like a neon deity — part UFO, part snack aisle miracle — while a lone surfer rips a wave below, completely unbothered. A beach ball rolls across the sand in the foreground. Nobody panic. Bless My Soul is a high-color, deeply unserious painting about the sacred and the absurd living side by side. The ocean is real. The vibes are real. The Swiss Roll…

The devil is in the details and boy are my eyes bad. Years ago I went to see an optometrist and after the exam he said I have astigmatism and told me that I am near-sighted. He asked what I did for a living and I told him I was an artist. Fascinated, he replied with “Oh wow. You know there’s a theory that many artists, especially the impressionists, may have suffered from various vision…

Back in the mid-90s when I was attending School of Visual Arts Savannah, there was much folklore floating around about the world renowned artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine and William DeKooning, Frida Khalo, Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund), and Wayne Thiebaud (probably my all-time favorite). I was a wide-eyed 19 year old ravenous for knowledge of all things art (especially painting…

This archival print features a mashup of two icons of American counterculture: the murderous Sawyer family from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre reimagined in the composition and raw energy of Minor Threat’s landmark 1983 hardcore punk album Salad Days. In place of Ian MacKaye’s brooding steps, we get Leatherface shredding a Flying V, a keytar-wielding family member in neon green, a percussive figure…

In case you aren’t aware, our lovely city of Athens has a new hockey team, the Athens Rock Lobsters. Named after the kooky hit song by Athens own ultimate party band, the B-52s. Earlier this year they reached out to me to commission me to paint a custom goalie helmet for them. I of course jumped at the project! Working on this helmet has been an incredible pleasure. My wife, son and I have become…

I am thrilled to announce that I have signed on with A.T. Hun Gallery in my old stomping grounds of Savannah, Georgia. This lovely Spanish mossed oak tree town was highly influential in my youth while attending School of Visual Arts (not S.C.A.D. – ask me about it sometime!) in the mid-90s. I was painting student by day and dancin’ fool by night. I spent the evenings at a local watering whole,…

It may be hard to believe, but I generally don’t paint in the studio every single day. (I know!) My days are filled with mostly administrative work. Sending and responding to emails, scheduling mural meetings, compiling and sending proposals to public calls for art, sketching or writing down ideas, writing these weekly emails for you, networking at in-person events, reaching out to galleries,…

We weren’t allowed sugary treats in the house growing up. Mom had a strict “no donuts, no sugary treats, no candy” policy that ran from right after your birthday to Halloween and then from Halloween until your following birthday. Not even a cookie jar on top of a refrigerator was to be found. Once in a while we would get a treat like ice cream or a cherry pie from McDonald’s. Maybe. 50% of the…

Have you ever seen a bat snowboard? I would like to share with you one of my favorite pieces featuring a bat and dessert, Hibernation Breaks. (Yes, that is a bat snowboarding on an ice cream sandwich!) This was originally part of the Lucky 13 New Moons project that fell into disarray in the middle of the summer of ’24. As I took on this project I quickly realized I was losing my marbles about…