Born in 1969, Sanford Wakeman discovered his interest in art as a teenager, beginning with his love of photography. He entered the Fine Arts program at the University of Georgia, where he studied photography as well as drawing, painting and sculpture. He later attended the Savannah College of Art and Design where he focused on color theory and drawing.

Most of his early works explored urban scenes; Wakeman was intrigued by the juxtaposition of color and collapse he saw in graffiti and derelict buildings and neighborhoods. When he later worked in a packaging plant, Wakeman found inspiration in the industrial machinery that surrounded him, seeing “a life and spirituality within the non-living.”