Wax crayon on assembled incised scrap wood, unsigned, 1979, retains Weatherspoon Art Gallery label to underside.

24 x 35 x 14 in.

Deaccessioned from and being sold to benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Weatherspoon Art Museum, UNC Greensboro

Purchased by Weatherspoon Art Museum from the artist in 1986.

Leroy Person lived and worked in eastern North Carolina in Occoneechee Neck near the Abermale Sound. Person worked many of his adult years at a sawmill until lung ailments forced him to retire early. He then devoted his time to creating hundreds of discrete sculptures, carved furniture, rubbings of his woodwork, and crayon drawings. Leroy Person’s sculptures consistently employ circles (signifying the sun and saw blades), images of trees (“lily bushes” or “God-trees”), representations of his tools (especially the wrench), and letters and numerals. Sometimes he painted his works, but most often he used wax crayons vigorously rubbed on and into the wood's surfaces, creating effects reminiscent of encaustic.

Minor surface accretions, stable drying cracks to white paint on front facing edge.