Well here I am

HEY ALL!

So here's the start of my blog. A little bit about me. I will be graduating soon from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA consisting of a Major in Sculpture & Extended Media and a Minor in Crafts & Material Studies with a focus on Furniture Design/Woodworking.

I grew up around nature and in doing so, nature grew on me. My dad has been working with wood for over 35 years, so that left me in a shadow of a professional. I grew up in a rural part of the tidewater area of VA, so having occupations such as housing construction, landscaping, farm-work, and tree removal were not-at-all unheard of. Though, when I transfered my state of living from the country to city life, my mind did not quite follow along with the open minded state that the city would soon bring to me.

My original intent when I came to school was to shoot for illustration when I first entered VCU's Art Foundation Program, but a teacher of mine insisted that I progress my ever-expanding interest in 3D art.

From there I went on to become a sculpture major. For a good year, I had my head stuck in a ball of metal where I was constantly attracted to and also distracted by welding and large scale steelwork. Along the way, as all fine artists are required in our program, I have to pick up classes in a different major. That's where the start of my woodworking adventure began.

Around the end of my Junior year, I started to realize how the Sculpture program truly tested the minds of us artists and how it taught me the meaning of the word "concept;" the understanding of the phrase "conceive thoughts." This expanded my mind into trying to connect my new-found city self with my past years of growing up around wildlife, outdoor sporting, blue-collar work, and big trucks.

From there on out I have been finding myself thinking about many different concepts in my art as I create it; Function vs. Aesthetic, Ugly vs. Beautiful, Plain vs. Extreme, etc. I have found that through an interest in past minds of the world of art, as well as the field of philosophy, that I two was and still am very capable of being what Professor Simon Blackburn calls a "Conceptual Engineer" in this ever changing art world that we live in.

I was once told by a professor of mine that, in our present day, "The Bachelors in Fine Arts is the new Bachelors in Business."