Updated: _ August 3, 2009 ______________________________________________

 

 

For as long as I can remember, I have revelled in making the lives of those around me richer and more exciting. Over the years in Knoxville's best and brightest public schools for K-12, I could almost always be found trying to brighten someone's day, getting slightly too excited about the latest homework project, or drawing on my desk.

It was in the 6th grade that I got my first taste of national recognition in art: in the Crayola Dream Makers competition. But it was not until my second year in high school that I could truly begin to pursue the arts. It was that year that I was accepted to Tennessee's Governor's School for the Arts. I returned from GSFTA fully charged and ready to attack painting and drawing–a feeling that was spurred even more when I was accepted to the prestigious Summer Seminar of the Marie Walshe Sharpe program following my junior year.

I loved excuses to make more art, and I would jump on the chance to enter each competition that passed my way. This habit helped me to stack up a generous track record in the art competition circuit (most of which is hopefully represented in appropriate resume's).

Before leaving high school, I had already splashed into every field that spiked my fancy; between countless hours of volunteer work, I found time for: competitive rock climbing, rugby team, swim team, theatre, juggling exhibitions, web development, kayaking, the painting (and construction of) Knoxville's premier youth-center/skate-park... and other things of which I'm less proud. This was a trend that hardly died at Centre College, where I found myself as a freshman in the lead role of the spring play during my first year in track, work-study, fraternal obligations, an 18 hour course-load, and guitar lessons. The bio stops there for now, but a good summary would be to say that I have always fostered an appetite for a full plate, and I enjoy a varied diet... an idiom that has never been more true than since I began my relentless love afffair with the art of glassblowing, and my gentle mistress, computer science.

to be continued...