In my art, it is my inspiration first and the medium after. Freedom is the foundation of the manner in which I express myself. I like to create, but I also want to see my personality and life experience in what I create. I started drawing in black and white a long time ago with a simple, affordable ballpoint pen on paper as I often relate visually to natural and carved ebony wood which influenced me a lot. Growing up in a community active in farming, fishing, and raising cattle taught me many things. Such a nurturing and cyclical environment was the “school of life” for me. I have been involved in art since my childhood. I never underwent formal training in art as I grew up in a family with very limited finances. I always had difficulty getting standard art supplies. During that time in my life, I was completely unacquainted with “art” as an academic term. But over time, with patience, perseverance, and simply doing what I always loved to do, I felt encouraged and adopted a personal philosophy that has made me very independent in the style in which I express myself. To create my art, I prefer to work in a non-traditional manner and move away from the strictly academic methods because my school is everyday life. In my drawings, I utilize simple but unforgiving tools as I explore people living and working with dignity in rural, communal life – a life that has many layers of individual obligation and societal expectation.