Canyon Crave

The series features paintings of desert landscapes complete with classic Eskridge offbeat animals including bats, opossums, and raccoons. To be sure, the motley crew of animals are juxtaposed with fun-loving late night desserts hovering above like Fructose Encounters of the Third Kind. Desserted Deserts is a celebration of the american desert of which my father took me and my family to visit a handful of times. These paintings are past, present, and future as I explore these new waters without my father. My father passed last year while creating my last series, “Roughs in the Diamond”. This had a profound effect on my life and work. I decidedly side-step from animal portraiture to pull back a bigger scene while still continuing my love of misunderstood animals. This series is a nod to my father’s humor, those wonderful trips we took, and my own sense of being a loner similar to these animals.

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Originally from Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Will Eskridge attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Visual Arts/Savannah and earned his B.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from San Francisco Art Institute in 1999. With a father as a veterinarian and an artist mother, Will’s affinity for animals and art began when he was in pre-school. Eskridge’s work is in both private and public collections in Athens, Atlanta, Raleigh, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, China, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Switzerland.

Will has roamed the southeast, setting up shop in Charleston, SC, Kings Mountain, NC and Nashville, TN settling on Athens, GA in 2006. He works as a full-time artist and muralist specializing in outcast animals like bats, coyotes, and snakes in fun, bright colored party atmospheres. Eskridge resides in Athens, GA with his wife, their son, and their gang of dogs and cats. Along with art, Will also drums and plays guitar in various musical projects.