It’s true that a blank canvas or a blank sheet of paper can be intimidating. Taking the first step is often the most difficult part of starting anything you’ve never done before. Now that that’s out of the way maybe I can get on with this new venture, keeping an online journal. It’s my intention to reflect on my journey, not just as an artist, but also as a man born in a particular time and place, to share the highs and lows, the things I’ve learned and the things I’m still uncertain about, even after nearly seven decades of walking this path.

Since the largest single land mass of my personal map is labeled “Artist”, let me begin there. It’s difficult, impossible actually, to say with any precision when my journey began. Being an artist is not something I decided to do or become, not a choice I made at some point in my life. I have simply always been an artist. Even as a young child I would record my impressions of life through art. My mother kept drawings that I did before I scarcely remember doing them, probably around the age of three.

One of my earliest memories is going to downtown Kingsport, Tennessee (my hometown) to see the circus that was being set up there. I was especially impressed, and quite frightened, with the elephants. When it came time to go to the circus the next day my fear overcame my fascination, and I pretended to be sick so I wouldn’t have to go. I stayed with my great grandma Mowdy while my mom and three sisters went to see the clowns, the lion tamer, the acrobats, and, yes, the elephants. I may have missed the circus that day, but I preserved my strongest memory in a drawing. And thus began the journey…

The Journey Begins