Inspiration for the piece:

I identify with animals better than I do with humans. So, I thought about how I see myself. For this painting, "Happy as a Frog on a Log," frogs for the most part are solitary animals as am I. They are amphibious, and are content spending their time in the woods or forest. I have never seen a frog smile before so I made on do just that.

What role does art play in your life?

Before my grandfather passed, he gave me little words of wisdom that I still think about today, and one of those tidbits was this: "Only boring people are bored." I took that to mean that if I found myself becoming bored, go find something to do. I found art.

Artist statement:

I live by the philosophy that if you ever find yourself becoming boring, TRY SOMETHING NEW. This was told to me when I was 5 years old by my grandfather. I still think of this to this day. In 2019, I found myself bored, and immediately got ahold of the allowable property list and went looking for a hobby that I could do while incarcerated. I started with paint-by-numbers. I did 5-10 of those and decided that I wanted to try my hand at doing my own paintings. I bought the Blick basic 6 colors, a brush set and an canvas pad. I love it to this day. I paint on the weekends when there is nothing happening. I like participating in Art From the Inside because it has a mission and a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to a charity of the group's choosing. Grandfather quote "Only boring people are bored."