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Wes Freed, the visual artist best known for his illustration work for Drive-By Truckers, has died at the age of 58. Freed, an outsider artist, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in January. Earlier this year, the band Drive-By Truckers noted that Freed was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Following the news, a GoFundMe campaign was launched to help pay for his treatment. By definition, outsider art is art made by self-taught artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art world.
Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood, in a post on social media, wrote:
“I know word is out. I’ll be posting something when I can. Just too damned sad right now to articulate anything.”
The Virginia native artist and musician passed away on September 4, nine months after his cancer diagnosis.
Wes Freed was also a musician
Freed grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and went on to study art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
“I think initially when I was in high school I always wanted to be in New York and be an artist. And then I came to Richmond and said, ‘I don’t know, Richmond seems like it might be big enough.’ Then I went to New York and it was like, ‘Yeah, Richmond’s definitely big enough.’”
Freed, in a 2011 interview, noted that with his art, he tries to to convince himself that a place in his childhood exists somewhere, maybe in a metaphysical sort of way.
The Richmond, Virginia-based artist was also a musician. Wes Freed played for several local bands including the Shiners, Dirt Ball, and Mud Helmet.
In 2019, Freed published a coffee-table book tiled The Art of Wes Freed: Paints, Posters, Pin-Ups & Possums, featuring a wide range of his work. The book features a collection of his art, along with album covers that Wes Freed has done for Drive By Truckers, as well as other bands like Cracker and artist Lauren Hoffman.
In a 2010 interview, when Freed was asked if he liked drawing or music more, he said:
“I would say I started drawing long before I played music, but I don’t think the two can be separated in my mind.”
Freed first met Drive-By Truckers in 1997
In 2019, Freed told the publication No Depression that he met Drive-By Truckers by chance at the annual roots music festival Bubbapalooza in 1997. They became friends and crashed at Freed’s home with him and his then wife, Jyl Freed. Soon after, the band asked him to collaborate on the Southern Rock Opera double LP. Patterson Hood’s sister Lilia, also worked with Wes Freed to complete the album package.
In an interview, Hood said:
“She vowed early on to be true to his work and never alter it, which cemented his trust. We’ve been working with him ever since.”
He first worked with Drive-By Truckers when he designed the cover for their third album, 2001’s Southern Rock Opera. The band’s 2001 double LP featured a red-eyed owl flying over a burning field. He also designed posters, t-shirts, backdrops, and other merch for the band. Freed also created a Cooley Bird character for the band that became visually synonymous with the band and guitarist Mike Cooley.
Freed went on to work with Drive-By Truckers on seven of their albums. He also worked with the band for their 2020 album The New OK and their latest album Welcome To Club XIII, which was released in June this year.
