William Christenberry, the noted sculptor, photographer and painter, and his wife, Sandy, have lived in Washington since 1968. Christenberry, who has taught art at the Corcoran, is originally from Hale County, Alabama, a place that figures prominently into his work and that is the subject of Working from Memory, a new book about the stories behind his images. Christenberry will be at Politics and Prose tonight at 7 p.m. to read from his stories. DCist got a chance to sit down with him this weekend and talk about his work.

How did you get involved with several different media?

Well in Alabama in the late ‘50s I knew I wanted to study art and I wasn’t sure at that time whether I wanted to do painting or sculpture. I had a painting instructor and a sculpting instructor, and they both encouraged me to do both.

My work is so much mixed media. I sculpt, not with clay or welding but with wood. I don’t paint in a traditional sense; I haven’t painted on canvas in a number of years. Some people say what is Christenberry — a painter, a sculptor, a photographer? I use it all towards one means of expression.