December 2011

The Sanctuary in Charlotte, NC, Offers Works by Jeffery Weatherford

The Sanctuary in Charlotte, NC, is presenting Crayon Meltings by encaustic artist Jeffery Weatherford, on view through Dec. 31, 2011.

Weatherford, 22, did not always seem destined to be an artist. His kindergarten teacher prodded him to finish coloring handouts. Today, Weatherford is still creating outside the lines, painting and pouring melted crayon onto canvas, paper or wood. His abstract expressionist impulses may seem to channel Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring or Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Weatherford was born with hands so large that his grandmother predicted he would one day do important work. The High Point, NC, native doodled his way through the early grades and by middle school he was taking studio art classes. A graduation trip to France interested him in becoming a fine artist. While he was a Chancellor’s Scholar and computer graphics/animation major at Winston-Salem State University, an internship led to a contract to illustrate a children’s book about the Tuskegee Airmen.

In 2010, after his college roommate gave him a pack of crayons, Weatherford began experimenting with the encaustic medium of melted crayon. Using crayons, pots, glue guns, brushes, aerosol paint, and paint pens, he creates abstract expressionist mixed media works that invoke the power of the conscious and subconscious mind. When he begins a painting, he rarely has a preconception, preferring instead to spontaneously convey emotions. He translates these subconscious images onto the canvas as they arise in the mind’s eye. His influences range from metaphysical to musical, since he is also a freestyle rapper.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call The Sanctuary at 704/331-9797.

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