“The toughest question I’m ever asked is where I’m from. I was born in Flowood, Mississippi in a super tiny country hospital. My dad has an artistic spirit, but he doesn’t specifically have a craft, so his whole life mission was to help creatives figure out their space in their culture. Eventually said he knew he wanted to get to Paris. He wanted to start an art gallery, so he did. When I was 8 years old, we moved to Paris and I grew up there.

“And it was all about artists. The whole culture is about the arts, and so we’d have big parties with like fifty different artists, which was awesome and I loved that. When I was 17, we moved back here for my parents’ work. At that point I went to SEMO and I met my husband and just decided to stay.

“Art history, I think is the most beautiful way to learn about our world because you get the viewpoint of these incredibly creative, sometimes super overlooked individuals who make things that are gorgeous and so specific to the time. Like, you can’t recreate what happened in the Renaissance. I love the arts so much and I’m super passionate about it. Everything I do in my own personal time tries to revolve around my passion. As for me, I feel like I kind of grew up with the same spirit as my dad in that I am an artist. I’m a photographer and I’m a singer; those are my crafts, but more so than anything I love to encourage the arts.”