I almost enlisted in the United States Air force.

Following two years of training in Architecture

school at Southern Polytechnic State University (now KSU), I was forced to take a year off to “figure my
life out” due to my lack of academic dedication. I worked in restaurants and tried to afford an apartment
at 19. It all seemed so eminent I knew I needed to join the Air force to find a way out (and was offered a
job in “Intelligence”). I chickened out. I wanted to be an artist. I worked on raising my GPA for a year and
a half at community college before I was able to transfer to Georgia State University and start the four
years of undergrad over.

I graduate with a BFA in Drawing, painting, and printmaking from Georgia State University this
December: Magna Cum Laude. During my time at Georgia State, I was accepted into the Honors College.
I presented a painting at the Georgia State University Undergraduate Research Conference among
scholars across all disciplines of the university. I was awarded a scholarship through the Atlanta Artist
Center, which included membership to the community for a year. I received an honorable mention for
the Dean’s art Award. I was handpicked to be a RAW artist. I interned at the Marietta Cobb Museum of
Art as well as volunteered at numerous art related venues. I was selected to paint en plein air at Zoo
Atlanta. While these exhibitions are some of my prouder ventures, all of my extracurricular activities are
listed in the attached resume.

My next venture is graduate school. I am going into overdrive, post-graduation, to do as much as

possible to make myself the most ideal candidate. For example: I have been in negotiations via an artist
owned real estate program called Beacons to buy my own condemned Atlanta Building. It’s located
adjacent to several popular galleries in a less than ideal neighborhood of downtown Atlanta. I have plans
to completely revive the three-story, historic, butcher shop into an art studio/loft with my own street
front gallery. Can you think of a better lifestyle for something who advocates the phrase: “reduce, reuse,
and recycle” than living/working in a building that was once abandoned? *Chills* A position that few
southerners can identify with.

Right now, my city is rebuilding both its NFL stadium (almost touching to the old one) and a new
NBL field overlooking the Chattahoochee National Park. When I complained of the tree loss on the
Chattahoochee, a very wise adult said to me: “Oh, Georgia has enough trees.” I have chosen Bunnell
Street Art Center’s residency for its location and the fabled Alaskan landscape. During the residency, I
want to engage in a conversation of creative ideas and critique with artists who have similar values.
These people are rare in the southeast. I want to enter a community that honors nature instead of trying
to “conquer” or alter it. With my art, I want to remind people of the impermanence of human life and
how we hasten our demise by wasting natural resources to manufacture amenities. I want to create a
dialog for the futility of vanity, luxury, and excess.

“I speak for the trees”

-The Lorax