My roots in the North Carolina mountains are deep, and my Appalachian-ballad-singing and folk-art-creative family instilled in me a lifelong art practice that runs alongside my work as a librarian, gallerist, and arts fair organizer. All are creative, aesthetic pursuits in their way and have bled into and been fed by one another.

I take inspiration from my home, with its worn mountains and ancient forests, and the creative communities it has nourished, from the Bauhaus artists at Black Mountain College to those who have formed family around the events (The Big Crafty) and galleries (Horse+Hero & CODA at Citizen Vinyl) that I curate with my partner, Justin Rabuck.

I take inspiration from the book arts I come across in my work life, like the handprinted plates in dusty books of heraldry, with their silky, translucent pages of archetypal imagery telling the stories of people and places, and rendered in solid fields of brilliant old inks.

I take the most satisfaction from pieces that are minimal in detail and maximal in resonance. My work tends to be elemental, dreamily stark. Usually a product of the late night, my pieces often feel to me like the shadows of a dream. My palette is moonlit and cozily luminous. I draw layers of meaning from archetypal forms at their most bare. My work hangs in a void of deep time, behind a veil of distance, where everything is alright in the end.

My art practice has been a private thing until, on a lark, I recently became acquainted with the uniquely gratifying experience of sending pieces of oneself out into the world, in the form of inks on paper and canvas.

I share my home in Asheville, NC with my brilliant forever collaborators, painter Justin Rabuck and child Ellis, both of whom inspire and spur me on daily.

I post most frequently at @yourpersonalpilgrim.