Nashville artist's colorful crayon craft has been a true gift

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you step into an art museum, you'll typically see a small written piece telling you more about the work and even the artist.

You don't always get the whole story, but you'll know a Herb Williams sculpture when you see it. That's because most are made entirely — out of crayons.

"Hopefully good art should make you question a couple of things, right?" Williams said. "You know it's one of the top 10 most recognizable scents on the planet."

It's not just the scents scattered all over the planet. It's the sculptures made of crayons — hundreds of thousands of crayons.

"I'm sitting just in a beach chair I made -- I mean I got off Amazon," he said.

You can't get his work on Amazon yet.

"I've been working with crayons for the last 20 odd years," Williams said. "I love all the neon and the color that has come to Nashville."

Only a lot of that color is in his own studio.

"I think playing with crayons keeps you kind of young," he said.

His pieces are scattered all over the country. Many are in Tennessee, New York, Chicago, and even as far as China.

"I get them in 50 pound cases of 3,000 of a single color directly from Crayola in Easton, Pennsylvania," he said.

The crayons turn into a fox, flag, or even a bunny. They can be an outlet when life feels like it has been broken into pieces.

"The mother of my children was murdered a few years ago in East Nashville," Williams said.

That was in 2017 when his former wife was shot and killed. Police told NewsChannel 5 it was investigated as a murder-suicide.

"Art is its own therapy," he said.

It helps heal — but still an indefinite scar. It's an ongoing question of why? What's the solution? For this artist and father of two — he knows his therapy.

"Art is something you can lose yourself in and find yourself again," Williams said. "You can reinvent ways to make peace with things and to keep going."

If you want to see more of Williams' work, click here.