I grew up in Philadelphia, MS surrounded by generations of artistic women in my family. Growing up, I did not like having my photo taken, but I am so grateful to my mother for capturing my childhood and the memories that are hard for me to recall most days. I have photos of all these family members that are no longer here with me such as my Great-Grandmother and Great-Aunt who were the main creative forces I grew up around.

For most of Elementary and Middle School I lived on the MS Gulf Coast which is known to be a hub for the creative. I was able to see so much art created by a variety of people and media which only drove me further towards creation. When I was 13, my Mother and I settled in Clinton, Ms where I finished Middle and High School. Most of my free time was spent in Marching Band where I was able to learn discipline and that true art takes hard work and lots of practice. My Senior year I showed an interest in photography which led to my Mother gifting my first digital camera. While it was a canon “point and shoot” it drove me to walk around my neighborhood and find the interesting within the mundane.

At that point I still believed I wanted to be a Graphic Designer, but that all changed when I met my professors at Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS. Sarah Teasley and Randy Minton are the two professors that did not put up with BS or Excuses but drove their students past their limitations and showed them what they could actually accomplish and create. I am so thankfully that Sarah pushed me past what I thought I could do within Ceramics and showed me how much fun it can be to get dirty and just create. Randy taught me the process of the Dark Room and how satisfying it can be to slow down and really decide on what to photograph onto film before I would continue on to the more forgiving digital photography. If it was not for these two amazing professors, I do not know if I would have decided to continue down the path to achieving my Bachelors Degree.

At Delta State University, I spent all of my time in the studio. There were so many amazing classes that I took that shaped the artist I wanted to be. I am very thankful to Ky Johnston who allowed me to do flexible courses to work around the full schedule I had to have to achieve my goals. I loved ceramics and being able to go in the studio and just create outside of class hours helped to relieve stress and fill my creative cup. Michael Stanley was another professor that helped me achieve my goals. By taking sculpture classes I was able to see more of the process and was reminded to take my time through the course of a project instead of racing to the end. At the end of the day, art is subjective and based on opinion and not everyone will share your opinion. The hardest part is to keep going, growing, and taking all criticism with a grain of salt. I am truly thankful to all the professors I had and the ways they all pushed me in different ways.