I am an illustrator based in Georgia. I have been making art my whole life. When I was young, my uncle, an amateur artist, put a pencil in my hand while I sat at my grandmother’s dining table. He placed a coffee cup and a sheet of paper in front of me and told me to draw the cup. He showed me how he drew the cup, and I tried to copy his technique. I didn’t think I did a great job, but he encouraged me to keep practicing. Since then, I drew constantly. As a child, I drew horses, characters, comic strips, fashion designs, cats and even wrote and illustrated my own storybooks. In high school, I realized that what I loved to draw more than anything was people. I went to college at Reinhardt University and later Kennesaw State University, where I studied illustration and art history. I still find so much joy in getting lost in a canvas.