Artists In Jackson: Gary Willcock

For Gary Willcock, art is something built from the inside out.

His story begins with buildings.

“I studied architecture at the University of Michigan,” he says. “I worked for a company in Pontiac called Custom Home Design, for Architonics here in Jackson, and I used to moonlight doing drawings at night. I got into a lot of places, met a lot of people, did some fun things.”

Gary grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As he moved around the state, he was raised in houses without plumbing or a refrigerator, where every wall and nail carried meaning.

“All those structures had a special place in my life,” he says. “After World War II, there was a huge building boom. Every vacant lot disappeared, and I got involved in it somehow. When my dad decided to build a house, I was part of that. I didn’t know anything about architecture, but I liked designing houses. They told me, ‘That’s an architect.’ So off I went.”

Even after he left formal architecture for design and engineering work, the mindset stayed.

“Wherever I’ve lived, I play with the building,” Gary says. “If I see an empty building, I start massaging it in my mind.”

Gary’s Living Sculpture

Gary and his wife Christie live on seven wooded acres south of Jackson, a place they call Wind Mountain.

“When I moved in here, this part of the house was just a covered slab,” he says. “I enclosed it, added a reverse gable, and kept going. Over the years, I’ve changed almost everything.”

He built patios, redesigned the kitchen, and drew every trim detail himself.

“This is all my design: the casing, the woodwork. I had it custom-made by the man who built my cupboards,” he says.

Christie calls their home “a living sculpture.” Gary agrees.

“At some point, I wanted my life to be a piece of art,” he says. “To live in this structure where I’ve created all this stuff. I’m walking through my own big sculpture, and it’s functional.”

Sculptures of Precision and Play

Gary’s sculptures merge precision and imagination.

“I’m rigid in some ways,” he laughs. “Right angles all the way. That’s from my mother: you didn’t color outside the lines.”

His background in product and machine design shows in the materials he chooses: anodized aluminum, steel, acrylic, and found parts.

“I think of machines as robots,” he says. “Even a car is a robot. A robotic horse.”

His fascination with robots goes back to childhood.

“For some reason, I never got rid of a toy robot I bought in about 1948,” Gary says. “I bought it at Montgomery Ward in Royal Oak. It cost a dollar.”

Years later, his oldest son found a reproduction and bought it for him, sparking a new collection.

“Then somebody else gave me one, and another, and pretty soon it became a thing,” he laughs. Now, robots, along with dogs, fill his shelves.

“They all have personalities,” he says. “Some of my sculptures do too.”

Light is another essential part of his work.

“I enjoy how it plays off different surfaces, how it bounces around through the holes,” he says. “Some pieces have lenses. You look in one end and out the other, like a telescope.”

His sculptures often carry names that hint at humor and personality: Light Scope, Nest, Red Foreman, SEA AWL.

“I’m corny,” he admits. “But I like it when people lean in to look. Art should make you curious.”

Champion of Local Art

Walk through Gary and Christie’s house, and every wall holds local art.

“If you want a creative community, you support it,” he says. “You show up to openings, you buy work when you can, you encourage people.”

“We buy it because we like it, not because we have to,” Christie adds. “The people who made this work are our friends.”

Gary smiles at that. “Art is connection. You don’t create in isolation.”

Making Meaning through art

After raising six children and working full-time, Gary returned to art in retirement.

“I had to work, so all this was on the back burner,” he says. “One day I told myself, ‘If you’re ever going to do something, you better get off your seat and do it now.’ ”

Now an active member of several local art communities and collectives, Gary continues to draw, design, and build.

“I think art gives meaning to life,” he says. “It reminds us to look closer, to pay attention, to see more.”

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