Artist Statement

Simple man, growing up in a small town in South Carolina was always difficult for me. At a young age my classmates started bullying me mainly with homophobic slurs, I guess they knew I was a gay man before I did not having come out until the age of 21 years old when I was serving in the Marines. My parents struggled due to certain circumstances in their lives. My mom, sister and I were always on the move fighting these circumstances together. Being bullied and feeling more unstable than not during my childhood developed my independent and creative personality. At 12 I first remember thinking I was meant for more than my circumstances and would have to have a plan to launch myself from the hold of these. I promised myself then I was going to pursue architecture as my career choice, I have always been artistic and technical. As I got older, I began to realize I didn’t have the financial means, discipline or high school GPA for architecture school, I decided the solution to this was to join the United States Marine Corp straight out of high school. Being stationed on a base in California I was finally able to feel free enough to start expressing feelings that were suppressed by years of bullying and other social barriers. Still very focused on becoming an architect I started taking college classes while in the Marines to raise my GPA to a level that would get me accepted into an architectural undergraduate program. I learned many design techniques during my undergraduate experience, and feel in love with language, culture, religions and philosophy. A favorite quote that would describe one of my more common feelings is “I have only one language, yet it is not mine” (Jacques Derrida). Jacques Derrida acted as my guide to exploring new boundaries and developed a strange understanding of what language is and how to break through otherwise a common communication barrier. He was also the father of deconstruction best expressed through the media of language, but can influence