A sampling of my paintings. Please click on a thumbnail to see paintings.
A sampling of my metal sculptures. Please click on image to see sculptures.
A sampling of my drawings. Please click on image to see drawings.
Limited edition prints. Please click on image to see prints.
A sampling of my skateboards. Please click on image to see skateboard.
BiographyJeffrey Austin Waddle was born in Fresno, California. I've always had a love for the arts. Little did he know that his love for the arts would grow into a lifelong goal to create some of the most original and organic public work. Always having an interest in art and dabbling in it during high school and college as well as in the navy. Jeff's goal now is to make some of the largest most organic art for public display. When first introducing his metal sculpture for public display, people would often ask if he had any smaller work. His response was always," This is my smaller work!" During his time in the United States Naval Service he became a hull technician on the U.S.S. Yellowstone. While on the Yellowstone he learned the skill of welding, brazing and fabricating during Desert Storm/Desert Shield. After being honorably discharged he took to the work field welding. It was then that he met his now wife LeAnn Smoot. She looked at his art and saw it's. A-symmetrical symmetry. I saw that he had that natural instinct of balance that is the goal of most artists. When I found out he knew the skill of metal work, I couldn't believe it! He then realized he was attracted to the metal not for his skill but for the new found canvas that lay before him he lit his torch and began cutting. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area was of great influence on Waddle's work, it is where he learned about surrealism. It is where the world of water became more of a defiance of gravity rather than an obstacle for man. The ocean (while in the bay area) was always peaceful it wasn't until the Navy that I saw the chaos of it. How tiny man is even in this city on the ocean (the Yellowstone), man is still so small. Thus the worlds merge surrealism, the weight of man, the weightlessness of the ocean and its peaceful chaos like the calm before the storm. He has been recognized for having some of the cleanest cuts by hand on metal. He then began to manipulate the metal at different stages of heat thus creating his own unique style of sculpture. As stated by Jeanfo, a mentor and friend of his, To watch you is not to watch only an artist at work but you work as if a chiropractor of metal. His most recent challenge was a 17' bronze cross that now resides at the Baptist Medical Hospital's Healing Garden in Little Rock, Arkansas. Waddle worked conceptually alongside P. Allen Smith and Kevin Kresse. The metal artist worked the metal and bronze welding it then turning it himself (at times turning as much as 900lbs) until it was complete and ready for installation. Now his focus is on his painting, creating a new abstract version of what was displayed in his metal now only to give it more life and color ,an animated depiction of the world that has evolved in his mind. His goal now to create this world as truly and completely in metal as it is displayed on canvas. The ever evolving artist always longing for more, if given the time and circumstances, his world may someday be viewed as a gigantic fortress of abstract futuristic odyssey. So that one may fully experience this Bosch-like planet much like a dog or cat views our world. Since discovering this world, he has sold to numerous private as well as public collections. You may see his work at The Little Rock Convention Center, The Healing Garden at Baptist Medical Hospital in Little Rock and Mercy Heart Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Waddle has been featured on Good Morning Arkansas, Arkansas Tourism commercials, ads and displayed in convention centers across Arkansas. His work has raised funds for American Heart Association, Rain, arts in Education, Youth Home as well as promoting the arts and celebrating the diversity of art in the Heart of downtown Little Rock. |