Artist's Statement

I pursue knowledge and adventure, hoping to learn and disseminate facts and stories. I have been teaching elementary school students English for their state tests for three years. I constantly try to learn new things - one day it's the stock market, the next, playing piano. This accounts for my eclectic class schedules. Socrates knows that I know nothing. Hank Green sees I am a towering mountain of ignorance. 

Most money I save goes to alternative forms of travel. I’ve biked to Philadelphia, surfed couches in the Mid-Atlantic, and camped out on boat docks. This is a tourism that lets one know the people and scenery of an area much more intimately.

One big influence is Craigslist Joe, who traveled across America solely relying on people he met on the Internet, discovering inherent goodness in everyone he encountered. I hope to find what he did. Another is David Choe, an artist-turned-millionaire who still enjoys the uncertainty that hitchhiking and freight riding allow, even though he has the capital to avoid it. VICE, the company who filmed his exploits, has reporters stationed around the world who, as they say in their Youtube channel, specialize in "exploring uncomfortable truths and going places we don't belong". This motto has resonated with me. 

I capture my experiences and those of the people, places, and events I encounter, whether in writing, film, photography; or best of all, all three. These forms conserve, the facts, the stories, the adventure, the magic.