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Artist Spotlight: Cameron Weston Nicholson
Cameron Weston Nicholson (who goes by Weston, he/him) is part of the 2026 Fall/Winter cohort of VisArts’ Studio Access Residents.
Weston has been an artist “since he knew what the word felt like.” He has explored multiple media over the years, but a few have stuck with him more than others. Classically trained in Media Arts and Animation, he has recently been exploring pottery. During our chat, he alluded to his background as an illustrator by gesturing to the many clay bowls and cups he has made: “This is my sketchbook now.”
Sitting down with him in a clay studio partway through his residency, Weston provided insight into how themes of family and Blackness appear in his art, the ways clay has influenced his drawing practice, and how musical timing influences his work across mediums.
VisArts: How would you describe yourself as an artist?
Weston: I’m a Black artist based in Richmond, VA, born and raised in Portsmouth, VA. I’m a traditionally trained cartoonist with a bachelor’s degree in Animation and have made works ranging from short films to wall murals. I’m currently working at Trader Joe’s as a Sign Artist, which helps feed my love to create. Art has always been in the family, but it was becoming an artist after high school that showed me that I can be whatever I want to be. My words, pictures, and all of the ways I expresses them allow me to be myself.
What was your first interaction with VisArts?
I honestly have been in Richmond for over 10 years, and I never knew about VisArts until three years ago. Tesni Stephen (VisArts’ Director of Education) actually told me about y’all! We were all out to dinner with friends and she mentioned this place where there’s a cool creative community making art. I’m grateful to have had that introduction to VisArts.
What are you working on during your residency?
I have been pursuing my deep and growing love for ceramics. I’ve taken classes here and there, but not having the schooling behind me in ceramics pushes me more to learn as an artist. I’ve been in a dry spell with my love for drawing for a while, and diving into ceramics is helping that love regain its spark. Pottery has even helped me get back into poetry. So recently, I’ve been combining the three together: pottery, painting, and poetry.
Most of this residency, I’ve been trying to home in and learn all I can about clay. I throw on the wheel many times a week now, and try to get pieces to the kiln at least once a week. This process has allowed me to learn so much about pottery! Mainly up until maybe February I have been practicing, practicing, and practicing more.
During the summer of 2025, I was part of an art show titled Echoes of Us at the Branch Museum of Design in Richmond, VA. The piece I shared was called Dead Shame and is a painting of an orchid I own with a poem to accompany it. Recently, I just finished a pot for that orchid as it grows. Stepping back and seeing all of them together inspired me to write poetry, paint my plants, and make pots for them. [Note from VisArts: you can view these works in person in our current exhibition.]
While at this residency, it’s really allowed me to open my scope to the art forms and crafts I want to focus on. Working in clay inspires me to push my drawing and painting even more as well. I’ve never had a chance to be granted space to focus, and I am grateful to have this experience.
How were you drawn to the mediums you work in?
Drawing was my artistic awakening in this world. I never felt comfortable to pursue drawing or any visual art as a kid because I was discouraged by heavy judgement: “I can’t draw that well” or “how is it possible for me as a Black kid to make it?” It was only when I met another Black kid in high school who gave me the competitive inspiration to start drawing. It is possible to “make it,” because “making it” isn’t a singular thing. Since then, I’ve gone to school for animation which furthered my expansion into art. I graduated college in 2014, and as of 2026 and don’t ever see an end to me creating.
As for clay, I was never exposed to pottery as a kid or even knew it was a thing I could learn. Only after moving to Richmond did I notice it more and more. In 2020, I was able to take classes at Hand/Thrown and that started the obsession. Four years later, I surprised my girlfriend with classes, and we ended up taking them together. Since then, I haven’t stopped doing pottery.
What are some of your sources of inspiration?
Family is success no matter what “family” looks like to you. My work doesn’t always necessarily have my family in it literally, but there is always a source of them that shows through my art. Building from that, I thank my family for letting me explore life in the ways I’ve been raised.
My mom was always getting me in the garden, which peers through my work literally and spiritually. The garden is a special place… Food is free and it’s a blessing that we as humans have. It sucks we have to pay for food, but growing your own food is really a big deal.
My family is a musical family, and that bleeds through my soul. Music is probably the strongest inspiration in my work. I don’t think I can’t go a day without music. Cleansing the soul of sound is great, but music is powerful. I’ve been lucky to be around a bunch of musicians, and that has kept me glued to music. One of the most important things in animation is timing, honestly — timing is very important in all my artwork, from drawing to clay. Timing dictates almost everything; listening to rap while I throw gives me different results than when I listen to blues, even though they are very similar! Music is a transformative thing, and I hope y’all feel the same.
There are many other things I pull inspiration from, and to be honest the biggest is being BLACK. It’s an experience not everyone can have, and an experience not everyone will want to understand. Representation is one powerful thing, and it’s something I seek in all of my art forms. Being a Black artist always feels like you’re on the rebellious side of the world, and honestly it feels good to harness that energy. The beauty of Blackness inspires me to exist, to create, to fight, to keep on keepin’ on. It’s hard to articulate what it feels like to be a Black artist in a world of hate and anger directed at you most days of your life. If you know you know, and if you’re Black looking for that recognition: you’re worth it in every way, keep existing!
What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer?
A big part of my work, no matter the medium, speaks to emotion. Emotions in their multitude and how we can harness them in our creative processes. It’s easy to say “I want you to feel something,” but what I mean is: I want you to feel, think, blink — I want you to interact with your emotions. With the world drowning in racism and war it feels more so than ever that people need externalized emotion to help their own emotional endeavors.
My art-making in drawing, painting, etc. is much more translatable to what I want to communicate. With my pottery, I hope for that pursuit to bleed through, too. With pottery being anything from functional to sculptural and all the other ways it can be interpreted, I’d love to keep exploring its possibilities! Clay feels like a special kind of honesty to me, like playing music.
Learn more about Weston + his work: Instagram: @prof_weston | Website: profweston.com
See some of Weston’s work in our current Studio Access Resident Exhibition, Residing Between, on view in the True F. Luck Gallery May 14–24, 2026.
Interests and opinions expressed by artists-in-residence are their own. Learn more about VisArts’ organizational values and code of conduct.