Wayne Everett Bates

DOB: 6/13/61 - 62 years old

When Wayne, a self-made artist, was in grade school, he loved to draw and work with clay. In high school, he learned welding and wood-working, and today, in his spare time, he loves to draw and make wood and metal sculptures.

Wayne grew up in a modest family on a farm in the Shores area of Fluvanna, the seventh of his parents’ nine children—eight biological and one adopted. He remembers toting water from the spring. The kids slept in three to a bed, but they never went hungry. He recalls that, while his mother was the family disciplinarian, his father was soft-spoken but “you knew he meant business.”

Wayne attended Central Elementary School, which had been racially integrated since 1969, through grade 7. He then attended S.C. Abrams High School, which became known as “The Annex.” Wayne recalls that if someone was disciplined at school, you could expect to be disciplined at home as well. He says he kept quiet and did not get into trouble. Someone at the high school recognized his talent with art and suggested he should go to art school, but his family did not have the funds for additional education.

After high school, Wayne entered the construction field, learning the trades on the job. Eventually he became a building inspector for Albemarle County, a job he held for 16 years. He says he learned the codes for plumbing and electrical inspections from his 83-year-old supervisor, who took a liking to him. Wayne now works in Fluvanna County’s maintenance department.

When asked how friends would describe him, he said, with characteristic modesty, “He likes to have fun,” adding, “Laughter is good for the soul.” He doesn’t sell his art work—he gives it all away. “I got my life right,” he says.

After his only child, a daughter, begins college fall 2024, he hopes to find more time to pursue his passion for art.

Wayne