Herb Williams performs his own compositions at the opening of exhibition of his crayon sculptures. Photos Provided to China Daily

A US artist makes his mark with crayon sculptures. Zhang Kun reports.

He binds them. Cuts them. Melts them.

United States artist Herb Williams buys crayons by the thousands for each color, and he employs many inventive techniques to make the crayon sculptures now on show for the first time in China.

Secret Spectrum presents about 100 pieces of Williams' work at Jing'an Kerry Center, a new shopping mall on Shanghai's Nanjing Xilu until Oct 26. Most of the exhibits are sculptures, with some graffiti paintings, photos and a kaleidoscope installation, too.

"His works seems simple and easy to understand, but they are rich in meaning and involve issues of our time," says Xie Dingwei, president of Shanghai Tix Media Co Ltd, which brought Williams' work to China.

Tix Media has presented exhibitions of Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet in China, as well as a show of James Bond film props.

"We believe it's important to engage the young audiences," Xie says at the opening party for the exhibition. "The art scene is too market-oriented nowadays. The only way to change the situation is to cultivate our audience, starting from the children."

Animals, wood and children at play are the main subjects of Williams' sculptures. The 40-year-old artist is based in Nashville, Tennessee, which is famous for American country music. A series of sculptures and paintings are about music and Nashville, and Williams performed his own compositions at the opening.

"Finding beauty in everyday life is very important to me", Williams says. He has been exhibited widely all over the world: in museums, children's hospitals and the White House.

The exhibition "represents the past 10 years of my life", as Williams has worked exclusively with crayon for 12 years.

He calls the material "the gateway drug": "Who hasn't held a crayon? As a child you are an artist if you are using a crayon; then to capture an adult's imagination and use it in a different way, to me is very exciting.

"I'd like to think the idea dictates the media, but the crayon has been my favorite. I am still discovering new possibilities with it."

Having his debut China show in a shopping mall is "not at all what I expected", Williams says. In Nashville, it's hard to get people to where your art is.

"This is a fantastic solution, because the people are already here," he says.

"Involve art in your daily life. Make it the stream of your existence - I think we should do it more," Williams says. "A lot of other countries can learn a lot from this."

It takes months, sometimes a year, to create a sculpture with crayons, and Williams likes to do graffiti paintings that "feed the sculptures".

"I almost think of them as sketches," he says.

Some of these paintings are displayed in frames at the exhibition. "I tagged lots of buildings around the city of Nashville - my favorite restaurants and bars, my watering holes, " he says.

He is especially interested in the idea "to paint something on a public wall in the city, then present the same work in a frame, on a gallery wall", he says. "What makes one thing vandalism, while the other fine art?"

Williams flew immediately home after the opening because his daughter - the younger of two children - is celebrating her eighth birthday during the weekend. But he will soon return, because his exhibition will go on tour around China later this year, to Beijing, Hong Kong and maybe Taipei.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

Williams' crayon sculptures are of animals, wood and children at play. Some are about music and his hometown, Nashville.

(China Daily 07/20/2014 page9)