Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist?
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and always enjoyed making things, like wallets out of paper and staples. My maternal grandmother drew and painted in her spare time and gave me books about Grant Wood, Georgia O’Keefe and Degas, so I had some exposure to visual art early on. I also took art lessons in middle school from a man who made paintings of covered bridges on velvet. I hung out a lot in the darkroom in high school. I thought I might study art history in college, but when I started at the University of Georgia in 2000 I took a Freshman seminar on contemporary art and my whole world opened up. I learned about Kara Walker, Matthew Barney, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and many other major contemporary artists at the time, and I was a) incredibly energized about what art could be and b) realized that I wanted to go down the artist road, whatever that meant.
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Read the full interview at maakemagazine.com.
