Willehad Eilers
aka Wayne Horse

Wayne Horse on the internet: waynehorse.com

Wayne Horse on Instagram: instagram.com/waynehorse/

Wayne Horse on Artsy: artsy.net/artist/willehad-eilers

Wayne Horse is represented by Harlan Levey Projects and Galerie Droste

This Strange Spring: Before jumping too deep into this strange spring that's befallen us, I want to ask about another change that happened before the pandemic -- your embrace of oils. Being the proud owner of The Horse Diaries #2 and #3 (still trying to track down a #1), and having stumbled into your art a little while back, I have mostly known you for your acrylic and ink work (some personal favorites being "The Pick Up Artist" and "All Inclusive"). But I absolutely love the shift towards oils, especially the floating, disembodied mouths, in all of their terrifying and otherworldly beauty. What inspired the change?

Wayne Horse: The use oils came about as part of a collaboration.

When I was at the Dallas Artfair in 2018 with my gallery Harlan Levey Projects, I noticed the work of Austrian painter Philip Mueller. I felt a kinship with him as, while we work rather differently, we share an attitude and work with similar topics. Harlan Levey Projects and Philip’s gallery, Carbon12, have a good relationship, so we decided to collaborate for an exhibition in Brussels that was scheduled for April this year, but now, due to ye olde corona, is rescheduled for April 2021.

I visited him in Austria and we started working. To make the collaboration interesting we wanted to work on the same pieces and directly interact. To break away from my old habits I decided to leave ink and acrylics out in this project and give oils, which Philip primarily works in, a try. It was a rather dry and tuff first three days. I had never painted with oil and it takes a bit to get a feeling for it. At the start I was sure I’d go back to my old ways after this project. Until I think on the fourth day, when working on some faces, they started to appear in front of me. It sounds corny, but it felt like there was a lot of dynamism coming from the paint and I was really just standing back watching it happen. It felt like a game. The next few days were magical. I do not remember the last time I was so consumed by something. Maybe it was when I picked up skateboarding as a kid.

Anyway. We got up and painted. Forgetting about lunch and dinner on some days. I realized that oil can be a very quick medium. I was so excited about it that I got myself oil paints as soon as I returned to Amsterdam. I am very grateful to Philip for introducing me to this medium. I like what it does to my work. It is one step further. What I suggest in my blind ruff ink drawings is all of a sudden defined by the oil. Things I did but never reconsidered all of a sudden become explicit. It is still a great adventure to me.

As this pandemic became an unavoidable part of our lives, what has been the biggest change for you? What do you look forward to getting back to, once we regain some semblance of normalcy?

My life has not changed all that much. The biggest change is that I spend way more time with my daughter. That is a change to the good.

Everything moves a little slower. Because everyone is affected there is a lot of understanding for this collective ‘taking it easy’. My profession has taught me how to be alone over more than a decade already.

Still, I miss people. Some days.

The covid-19 outbreak, as well as my anxiety (which I only just started taking seriously), drove me to start walking sometimes 10 miles (16 km) a day, often wandering with a camera. Not only was I enjoying photography again after a years-long break, I fell in love with Seattle all over again. In a similar vein, what small moments of happiness have you been able to excavate from this surreal moment? Do you feel this pandemic has given you a new perspective on things? Has it impacted how you approach art?

Long walks with a camera are also my way of staying sane. Already for years and years. I noticed that the city center and the park have skipped places. While feeling like in a crowded pedestrian area in the local parks I can find some quietness and time to reflect when wandering through abandoned shopping streets. Places I have never seen deserted in the midday or afternoon sun. Beautiful and spooky.

How do you see the art world adapting to the next year or so, while we wait for medicines that are effective against covid-19 or a vaccine to eradicate it? I love what Galerie Droste has done (especially with "Art is where the heart is, Vol. 7"), among others. But what do you think artists and galleries need to do over the next year or so, before we can all drink too much champagne and wax poetic about art in person again?

Internet shows are fun and help to keep you entertained during this strange period, but eventually I do not see them replacing actual real life exhibitions. As a lot of art is created digitally and possible to experience for example through VR, I think there will be some exciting online shows coming up. But for art that has been crafted by hands I think there is no match to meeting them in person. I suppose it’ll take a while for busy openings to reappear, but I can stomach that as long as I can visit shows.

Are your recent Instagram stories meant to inspire sheer anxiety?! I love them, but my goodness, Willehad. It's like watching a bull in a china shop, except you're the bull and the china shop is your own art studio.

During this difficult time I thought it might be a nice idea to let people in, and share my process while creating the work. Just a look behind the façade. See how a day in the life of a working artist looks like.

There is a part of me that hopes we exit this strange year into a kinder, gentler world -- one where we pay "essential workers" what they deserve, respect and pay the artists who got us through these months of quarantine what they're owed, and stop having idiotic discussions about whether or not universal healthcare is a hippie socialist conspiracy against God and capitalism. What are your hopes for the world after covid-19?

I share your hopes. While not having chosen for these drastic measures, there is a lot of good happening these days. Of course we wait to return to normality, but we get a chance to rethink what our normality was and if this really is the way to carry on. I hope that we will learn from this.

What charities or organizations would you like to draw people's attention to?

Any committed charity organization deserves support. If everyone helps out where they deem it to be suitable, that would be good.