Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

I love creating layered collage work, both digital, and physical with paper at first and later with paint. I use found images, my own writings/drawings/scribbles, found textures, and fragments. I see these things like receipts of existence, building something new out of what already lived. My work usually feels a little surreal, a little emotional, and personal but not in a way that it excludes you. I like when it looks chaotic at first, but the longer you look, the more it starts to make sense.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in small, overlooked things. Stuff on the ground, old magazines, textures, colors, weird combinations that shouldn’t work but do. I also pull from memory, identity, and that feeling of being slightly different but also connected to everything in small ways. A lot of my ideas come from just noticing things other people walk past. That practice helps me connect more to the quiet but loud existence of things.

What would you do with $25,000?

I would invest in my art practice so I can move toward making a full-time living from it. I’d buy materials, and build my online presence so my work can reach more people. I’d also use it to create consistently without burnout, so I can grow something stable and long-term instead of just surviving. As an art educator, I would set aside funds to take my high school students on an all-expenses-paid museum trip to Nashville so they can experience art beyond the classroom.