About the Artist
I’ve been told I have a unique perspective. That I tend to add focus to details they wouldn’t have otherwise paid attention to. While I used to do this naturally, but without intent, I’ve begun to embrace this aspect of myself more and more in all aspects of my life.
For much of my life, I have filtered myself for the easy consumption of those around me. It wasn’t until I was able to truly love myself for the (real) person that I am that I began to truly live.
It took me entirely too long and I’m obsessed with helping others discover the freedom that I’ve found. Capitalism kills everything that we love and then uses dirty psychological tricks to make us believe that somehow we did it all to ourselves—not their greed, their hate, their violence. For way too long I bought the lies and I played their games. I did everything I was supposed to. I was never happy and somehow my bills were still never paid. I threw everything I believed in—my hope for humanity—in the trash like they told me to. But they only ever required more sacrifices from me and they never paid any dividends. I’m no better off financially than I was when I was 18 years old (in some ways I’m worse off, shout out student loans!). But there’s a whole lot I’ve done in the decade plus since I graduated high school that corporate America will never appreciate monetarily—though they’ve been happy to exploit the benefits for free.
I’ve worked in a ridiculous number of different industries—media, retail, finance, healthcare, food, pet grooming, to name a few—and we’re honestly going to need a whole different paragraph for my hobbies. It’s possible I took my parents a little too seriously when they told me I could do anything I put my mind to.
But, I think despite my humble beginnings, I knew that there was a big wide world out there with endless possibilities. I was thirsty for knowledge and just life itself and I soaked up as much as I could. After freshman year of college, I always had at least one part time job. But over and over, I kept finding that I loved the smaller places I worked the most. The ones with real pride and love wrapped up into everything they did, but they were rarely able to pay me enough to pay all of my bills. Some struggled to keep a meager staff due to overhead costs. I also took my first contract gig cleaning—it only took me 3 months to realize that I was making little to no profit and the gym wanted me to hire someone to clean while I was at school. 3 months was more than enough to learn that lesson. Eventually, I got my first full time job and I’ve had one since. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find one at any of the lovely little local places I prefer to support, and it’s hardly a surprise knowing what I know from many years of working them in Kentucky.
Still, I allowed my light to be diminished by a man who was never worthy of being in my life at all. It took me a while to return to art, and, most especially, music. But eventually, after he lost control over me, I found myself again. I finally realized that I actually was creative, not just some poseur or whatever it was I’d convinced myself I was instead. Still, when has creativity ever paid the bills?
I decided to pivot toward digital marketing, since my bachelors in mass communication was doing next to nothing for me monetarily. “Get a Masters,” they said. “People will respect you and pay you more,” they said. I’ve been “almost” hired but just barely “edged out” more times than I can count. If anything, I’ve received more feedback that I’m overqualified for the positions I’m applying for, yet, somehow under-qualified for any of those above (typically requiring experience with billions in ad revenue). But here’s the thing… I don’t want to work with billionaires. I want to work with my neighbors, the people who are making the city I love great. And those people can’t afford someone like me full time almost ever in my experience… at least not immediately. If you want to work with me knowing what you know, then there’s a good chance I want to work with you too. It’s impossible for everyone to wear every hat in their business, trust me, I’ve watched too many try and fail. Perhaps one of your hats would fit better on me? Check out my portfolio and get a taste of the kind of work I do (honestly I do a lot, not all is represented here yet) and my style. I’m always looking to flex new muscles and try new hobbies, you might be surprised what we can do together. Need branding done? Help with a website? Signs made? Clearer menus? Yep, I can do that too. Want a mural painted at your location? Literally email me right now, I’m dying to do one. My hourly rate is generally pretty low for contracts, but if you really need help and can’t quite afford the rate I give you, let’s talk about it. If I can work something out with you, I will!
I’m done chasing money. It rarely bought me anything I truly needed anyway. That being said, it’s impossible to live in our society without it, so I cannot work for free all the time either.
Well, I’ll add more to this later… but it’s a start. Send me an email, let’s chat.