It feels like southern accents are in my blood. Raised in central Texas on 100 acres, there were some things I couldn’t escape (nor would I wish to). Things like barbecue and football, fishing and Jesus just fit like a glove to a hand. Especially as I got older, seeing my dad (a custom home builder) working with his hands, whether with welding, wood working, or leatherworking, I guess I figured that was just what a boy ought to be good at. I try to tell a story with my art.
There’s a theology behind it all. Infusing emotions into lines and brushstrokes is freeing, in a way. When words feel cheap, it feels like my hands can say it better. Things I’ve seen, and the way it made an impression on me, are translated from ideas onto leather and wood.
Of course, not everything’s cut from the same cloth. It seems like there’s an awful lot of art out there that does a lot of talking without saying much. Truth be told, it’s not like I’m much better, sometimes I just put stuff on a page just to look at it. You hope things will speak, but sometimes they just don’t. Once in a while though, something good comes around and all you have to do is just feel. That’s the type of thing I like to make. The leather notebook that makes people ask where you got it from, or the drawing hanging on a wall that slows a hurried walk to a stand still. To make something really good that touches a soul, takes vulnerability (I mean that's literally part of you framed up on a wall), and I guess that’s why you find a lot of cheap art, because no one wants to say what they really think nowadays. I'm hoping some of my stuff speaks just a little bit.
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