What advice would you have for someone interested in your field?
Learn all you can now! Teach yourself how to create pattern repeats, learn how to play with color, and get acquainted with current trends in both the fashion and home industries. The more you can teach yourself and learn now, the more skilled you’ll be by the time you graduate and begin looking for a job.
How did you get your start as an illustrator?
When I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of Saturday morning cartoons, and was fascinated by them. Back in the day, I saw the comics on the spinner racks at drug stores and it blew me away because I made the connection that the stuff that I watched on TV was actually in book form. I begged my mom for a few comics and tried to copy what I saw in the books. And that kind of set me on my way. I was about six or seven years old. It just kind of enthralled me from that point on.
What is your greatest career accomplishment so far?
‘Bitterroot’ is a comic series that I co-created with another fellow South Carolinian, Chuck Brown, along with David Walker. We’ve won quite a few awards. We won what is equivalent to the Oscars for our industry. We have a film adaptation of a book in the series directed by Regina King and Ryan Coogler’s production house. That is definitely the milestone of my career so far.
Learn more about the award winning comic book, Bitter Root, here.
If you have a passion for filmmaking and making art, if you are willing to focus on how to be the best at what you want to do inside that world, if you are willing to do the work and research what it takes to be really good at that thing…your work and dedication and commitment will be rewarded. Simple.
What do you love most about your job as a sculptor?
I won’t have to retire. I’ve been lucky to be able to survive in a small town doing what I love. I also enjoy working with students helping them create legacy sculptures for their schools as a certified teaching artist.
Arts Grow SC partnered up with SC Future Makers to highlight creative professionals working in manufacturing in South Carolina! Check out the shorts below. Visit the Creative Careers Studio YouTube channel to watch the full-length films.
Video production by OTR Media Group.
