LUBBOCK, TX.- Herb Williams’ Call of the Wild series features animals in nature made out of hundreds of thousands of crayons, and displays some of this work in an urban environment, that celebrate the larger, mysterious world of the unexplained. The work is based on the idea that nature communicates through a spectrum of colors that we cannot see. “Amazing things are happening through their acts, but we are too busy to notice,” he explains. “We’re missing the greater significance of the beauty that’s right in front of us.”

The exhibit at Texas Tech spans two large white wall galleries and contains dozens of life-size sculptures made from hundreds of thousands of crayons, a series of framed graffiti paintings, and a twenty-foot mural titled “Ghost Tree”. This exhibit will run through February and will then join fifty other crayon sculptures Williams is creating for a touring exhibit throughout China next summer.

Call of the Wild continues with an unexpected element – some of these graffiti paintings can be found throughout Williams’ home, Nashville, on the walls of some of his favorite shops and watering holes. “They’re like my totem animals that give me comfort from being in this urban jungle,” he emphasizes. A fox can be found outside of Rolf and Daughters, a bear at Yazoo Brewery, and a stag on the wall of Old Made Good, and an Eagle at the William Collier’s bar. To view some of his work in a short, but very stimulating documentary, click here: http://vimeo.com/60426348

Herb Williams is one of the only individuals in the world with an account with Crayola. He creates original sculptures out of individual crayons sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

His sculptures have been placed in public arenas, such as children’s hospitals, corporate lobbies, museum walls, and the White House. He received The Joan Mitchell Foundation Museum Purchase Grant in 2004, the Next Star Artist Award in 2008, and was sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011. His work was featured at an Inaugural art exhibit in Washington, DC, with Shepard Fairey. Recently he opened “Plunderland”, a walk-in room installation consisting of almost 500,000 crayons in Chelsea. Over sixty crayon sculptures are slated to travel to China next summer for a six-city Asian tour. His studio is based in Nashville, where the Rymer Gallery represents his work.