I grew up in the South Carolina lowcountry on my family's farm. Making art has been a priority for me since I was old enough to hold crayons. My parents encouraged me and let me paint in a barn stall which was my first studio.
I went to the South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts and Humanities in 2009 which solidified the passion for creation in me and drove me to work harder than I ever had before. The intellectual rigor of the program made me push myself and think of myself as an artist.
I got my BFA at Winthrop University where I gradually shifted from an interest in metalsmithing to experiments with natural materials. The art community at Winthrop was strange and wonderful, where my peers showed dynamism and vision in the early stages of their careers which constantly inspired me.
I had art teaching opportunities working with artists of different ages. Teaching art became just as much a passion as the making and I loved what my students taught me about being a maker.
In graduate school I experimented with lots of ideas and materials. Trying to put my finger on what exactly I wanted to say was the most challenging aspect of getting an MFA for me. The second most being that the Covid 19 pandemic caused me to relocate multiple times and change how I worked time and time again. This brought my art practice fully into the natural world as I started building earth installations, growing and gathering botanicals for natural dyes, and using sunlight to create images via alternative photography.
Today I live in central Virginia, focusing on painting and ceramics as my primary mediums. The ideas continue to evolve and flower as time flows by. I currently pull my inspiration from nature, literature, and spirituality. I am grateful to my many advisors and peers for teaching me how to maintain a studio practice that allows me to find joy in the making as well as how to find meaning and purpose in it by asking the hard questions. I am also grateful to my family who encouraged me to make art even when they did not understand my art. Love and kindness to you all.
