“Getting my nose pierced was spur of the moment. I was 18 and a friend crashed with me for the night. I woke up and said, ‘I get paid today. I want to get something pierced’. Now it is part of my face. I grew up in a conservative place in Baldwin County and I wasn’t a Nike shorts and T-shirt person and the piercings were to make sure I didn’t look like that. I am an artist and hope to start selling my work by the end of the summer. I prefer pen and ink. It starts with a loose concept and the end surprises me. I can’t start with the end in mind or it makes me crazy and I turn into a perfectionist. I have always been an outsider. I had to learn everything is temporary and let go. Even bed things with parents and friends don’t last forever, so hang on. You need the bad as well as the good to stay in balance.”