Artist Biography
Born in Columbus, GA and attending art school in Atlanta, I was never exposed to the true possibilities of a career as a fine artist. My family didn’t visit museums, art shows, art fairs, or galleries. My Mother’s main objective as a single parent, was to do everything she could to keep me from becoming another stereotype. I grew up with a passion for comic books, video games, action figures, and cartoons. Innately I was drawn to pencil, paper, and exploring my imagination to fuel the talent I’ve always had. As I got older, I found an outlet through character design and graffiti. Somewhere deep down, I knew I was an artist but I still didn’t know what that meant. I was pushed in the direction of studying art so that I could one day get a job that I could be proud of… After years of finding freelance opportunities doing generic graphic design gigs, tattoo design, live painting, children’s book illustrations, etc… It hit me that I wasn’t finding fulfilment because I wasn’t feeding my own creativity. After stepping away from accepting freelance roles, I began to prioritize my imagination and my own body of work. I created a series of paintings with the following narrative in mind: “The beauty of Humanity can be more evident when studying our resourcefulness and ingenuity under various circumstances. I love the aesthetic of hillside African, Central, and South American living settlements, often referred to as "favelas" in Brazil. With these paintings I want to attack that subject matter with a sense of structure, adaptivity, and coexistence, rather than negative imagery such as crime, and poverty. This is a technique and a process that I created featuring acrylic and ink on canvas. These paintings give me the impression of Home. No matter what you look like, or where you might be from.” I entitled the series "beautifuL sLum" with emphasis on the "L" in both words because a recurring thought that I have while making these paintings is "Love of Life". It is important to me that I present something completely original and different than anything else that has been seen. That being said, these paintings are driven by my imagination and can never be duplicated.