FIBARK's featured artist

My family home was in Ferndale, a suburb, a regular land of dogs on leashes, strip malls, and generally harmless weather conditions.  As a kid, I was a fairly excellent student - diligent, focused, straight-edge, and holding a high standard for myself. I was also a runner, training year-round for Cross Country and Track.  When looking at colleges to attend, I visited Prescott College in northern Arizona.  It was my first foray into the west, and when our tour guide explained how many of the students lived in cars or tents, I chose a different direction.  It’s funny how many cars and tents I have lived in by now. 

 

Instead, I studied Biology at the University of Michigan.  In doing this, I realized that life in the quiet solitude of research was not my future; I was too social, too antsy to be on the other side of the lab windows.  I moved to Colorado and I approached this world with the wide eyes of a learner, taking jobs that got me closer to the people and the things that I wanted to know.  Eventually, I became a ski patroller at Arapahoe Basin.  When 2020 came around the world shifted, and for me, it felt like someone swung open these massive doors of opportunity.  I moved fully into the world of art.   

 

To do this I moved to Salida to be closer to what inspires me.  Beyond the trail access, and the community, Salida also has the Arkansas River.