We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ian McIlvoy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ian below.

Ian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The painting that I am currently working on is by far the most meaningful work I have done to date. A perspective I have is that a lot of realistic/fine art categories have forgotten a lot of the storytelling that you see from the 15th-19th century. The painting I am currently working on is full of narrative that subtly depicts heartbreak and loss but also hope. The title of this painting is called, “The End of the Trail – Reimagined” (the reference for my piece comes from a sculpture, “The End of the Trail,” by James Earle Fraser in 1894).

I can already tell that this will be an impossible goodbye when this piece eventually sells. So much of myself is brushed onto this canvas that whoever hangs in this their home is hanging a piece of me on their wall.

Ian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was originally born in California and raised by missionary parents. I spent some of my formative years in the Black Forest of Germany. Because of the proximity to France, Italy, and Switzerland (which we visited often) and their galleries and museums, I fell in love with Renaissance and Baroque-styled artists. With that influence, you’ll see in my work the appreciation of narrative and an endeavor towards realistic subjects.

In the same vein of influence, I was also enamored by the American West. From my grandfather’s love of the Yellowstone, to watching John Wayne movies growing up, something about the grit spoke to me as a young boy. My mother can recount numerous occasions of a 4-year-old Ian asking her to draw a cowboy for him; she often encouraged me to try drawing one myself, until I finally did. It was at that moment, I began to curate a lifelong passion.

I began my professional career in software sales, but that love for the West burned out into faint embers; no heat, but still very much so alive. After a few years in tech and the intense burnout that comes with it, I sought reprieve by escaping to Wyoming where I journeyed from corporate to cowboy. Those embers were fanned back into flames when I started selling my artwork out of necessity in order to pay my bills!

Today, you’ll see a few characteristics in my art that are going to distinguish myself as an artist. You’ll see a variety of canvases (from your traditional canvas, to a used up palette, to denim jackets), vivid colors that scream of the American West, a focus on story telling (some simple, some complex). My work is meant to engage with the viewer, not just the viewer engaging with the work, so there is an approach to my artistic style being “unbridled,” meaning that I am taking the bits out of the horse’s mouth so that we can go to places new and unknown.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Absolutely. I have learned how to freeze a moment in time. If there’s a moment that I really want to enjoy or process, I am able to sit in that moment for what might feel like hours or days when really its only been a few seconds or minutes. You’ll actually see this in my artwork where the scenes are active and there’s movement. Sometimes the movement might be subtle, but the “stoppage of time” is something that you can begin to pick up in my art. As for non-creatives, that is ultimately a skill that I had to learn and hone over the years. I would highly recommend learning how to slow down and take a moment in. While I bring this into my art, its also been the greatest gift as I intentionally cherish sweet moments with my 14-month-old son.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the late Spring of 2022, I was suffering from intense burnout in the corporate world and in my tech sales job. I ended up having a dream where I was riding a horse through open country, and when I woke up, I knew that I was supposed to be in Wyoming. That dream was on a Saturday night and on Monday, I quit my job. Within two weeks, I was driving from Austin, Texas to Cody, Wyoming to work with horses. For that first ranch job, I slept in a tack room (where you would keep saddles and tack for horses) in a barn for three months. I later worked in the Medicine Bow mountain region of Wyoming.

Ultimately, my heart had never felt so free and “unbridled.” A lot of my art is tied to my time working with horses and my experience in the American West. My decision to act swiftly wasn’t easy for a lot of reasons, but the season that came out of it will always be one of my most cherished times of my life and ultimately, my life as an artist likely would not exist without it. I went from an incredibly high-paying career to needing to produce artwork in order to cover my expenses due to only making $500 per month during my first job in Wyoming.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.unbridledbrand.com
• Instagram: @unbridledbrand
• Other: TikTok: @unbridledbrand