When a number of sports-related injuries brought his college career to an end in 1935, Whitener began to more seriously explore his interest in art.
After leaving the university, Whitener took a job with a state transportation agency in the mountain resort of Little Switzerland, North Carolina.
He studied with artist and Florida instructor Donald Blake, traveling frequently to the mountains of North Carolina to paint.
[1] In 1943, Whitener, with the help of his wife and local industrialist A. Alex Shuford, Jr., succeeded in assembling an art association in Hickory.
In November, the association held their first exhibition in a vacant office building, and in February 1944, the Hickory Museum of Art was formally dedicated.