Artist Statement and Bio:
Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, my roots in Appalachia are integral in defining my personal and artistic identity. From an early age I was always making and channeling creativity through scarcity and sometimes necessity. I found inspiration in the abundance of my natural surroundings and despite not always having the refined materials that were available to others, I managed to express myself using simple materials such as paper and pencil. Using these tools, I became a keen observer. I found that rendering images on paper helped me process and understand my world and eventually the people in it-especially my people. In more recent years, I have used my art to help me connect with the subtlety of internal struggle and deeper states of being in an often misunderstood demographic.