Herb Williams is a sculptor based in Nashville, Tennessee, who works almost entirely in crayons. His sculptures range from animals and figures to versions of famous works of art, including the Venus de Milo, and are covered in thousands of crayons packed tightly side by side so that the colour comes from the wax itself.
How the sculptures are made
Williams orders his crayons in boxes of 3,000 by colour and cuts each one to the length he needs. They are fixed onto a carved form and held in place by their paper wrappers, not by melted wax.
The work is slow. One of his largest pieces, Plunderland, used 250,000 crayons and took a year to complete. Based on Jack and the Beanstalk, it shows a beanstalk about 16 feet long rising out of a floor of clouds, which Williams has described as a picture of climbing the ladder of an art career.
Why crayons
His father died when he was seven, after trying to rescue a friend from a carbon dioxide leak, and he has said that making art began as a way of dealing with that loss. He went on to study sculpture at Birmingham-Southern College.
The crayons draw on childhood memory, but many of his subjects are adult ones, touching on social, environmental and political issues. The familiar material gives viewers an easy way in to harder themes.
Recent work
His solo show ColorSHADE ran at the Haley Gallery from 20 March to 9 May 2025, bringing together new crayon works.
The essentials
- Artist: Herb Williams, sculptor, Nashville, Tennessee
- Material: crayons, fixed by their paper wrappers onto carved forms
- Largest work: Plunderland, 250,000 crayons, a year to make
- Training: BFA in sculpture, Birmingham-Southern College