James Willis at his studio in Nashville

Last spring while on assignment in Nashville Katzenstein paid a visit to longtime friend artist James Willis. Willis was the inaugural artist in residence at Gibson Custom for a year. He continues to do custom work for them and one of his custom cases is actually in the Neiman Marcus fantasy gift catalogue paired with a custom gibson designed by Billy Gibbons of ZzTop. The Willie Nelson case pictured in the photographs was one of 12 that he did for Zac Brown’s studio (Southern Ground) in Nashville.

To read more about Willis and his residency with Gibson click here

© David Katzenstein / Dashbe