I have a deep love for underdogs; people, things, moments that are often overlooked or written off to be less extraordinary than I argue them to be. It is my goal to paint these underdogs with such care that their validity of existence is no longer questioned, that their beauty and individuality is highlighted in order to be more evident to their audience. My process begins with finding an object with a story of its own: a deteriorating snapshot of a couple from 1930, a souvenir keychain from a family trip to Florida in 1980, or maybe the sun faded album of a bluegrass band that no one has ever heard of. There is something about each object that draws me in, something strange that could not be noticed with a quick glance. These voiceless muses inspire me to the point that I feel an overwhelming urge to tell their story through my practice. I feel that it is my responsibility, a responsibility that I choose and love to have, to give these objects a platform that offers them respect that I believe they would not receive otherwise. Once they have been memorialized through paint and transformed into what is considered “fine art”, they inherently gain value that I argue has been within them all along.