Welcome
Welcome
Welcome
Here, you’ll find the hidden layers behind the artwork—stories, folklore, personal inspirations, and even short videos that bring the pieces to life.
Content
Welcome
Welcome
Dive deeper into my forest-inspired collection of art featuring animals and plants of the Appalachian Mountains..
Explore
Welcome
Explore
Take your time, explore, and see how art and story intertwine—revealing the deeper worlds hidden in each piece. Before playing videos please lower your volume or use headphones.
Gallery
Dragon Boat on Lake Lanier
This piece was inspired by the dragon boat sculpture in downtown Gainesville and my own memories of racing on Lake Lanier. Those experiences left me with a lasting sense of connection to the water and the community that gathers around it.
In the illustration, I wanted to capture not only the energy of the dragon boat, but also the beauty of the lake itself. Along Lanier’s shores, I often notice great blue herons standing tall in the shallows, buttonbush blossoms floating like spheres of lace, and cattails swaying in the breeze. These details became part of the story within the art—threads of nature woven together with memory.
Zeus: The Starry Eyed Owl
This artwork is inspired by Zeus, a Western Screech-Owl whose starry eyes captured the hearts of people around the world.
Though not a species found in the Appalachian mountains, his cousin, the Eastern Screech-Owl, lives here alongside other owls such as the Barred Owl, Barn Owl, Great Horned Owl, and the elusive Northern Saw-whet Owl, which sometimes appears in winter.
Eastern and Western Screech-Owls look strikingly similar, but can be told apart by subtle differences. Eastern Screech-Owls have a paler, greenish-yellow bill and a wider range of color morphs, including the striking reddish “rufous” phase, while Westerns usually have a darker, gray bill and lack the rufous coloring.
Zeus’s story is unforgettable. Found emaciated and blind on a porch in California, he was rescued and rehabilitated before being given a permanent home at the Wildlife Learning Center in 2012. His blindness—leaving him with only about 10% of his vision—made him non-releasable, but it also gave him a unique beauty.
His eyes, sprinkled with white flecks like a starry night sky, earned him his name and worldwide fame. Zeus lived at the center until May 2025, when he passed away peacefully after failing health.
I like to think this little owl, who once held the cosmos in his eyes, is now flying free among the stars. The moonflowers in this piece bloom around him, their white blossoms echoing the quiet brilliance he carried in life.
While working in my art studio at night I can hear barred owls sing "Who Cooks for you"
The Red Wolf and The American Chestnut Tree
This piece was created to raise awareness of two endangered species of the Appalachians: the Red Wolf and the American Chestnut tree.
The American Chestnut tree was once one of the most abundant and fastest-growing trees in the eastern forests. However, due to chestnut blight, it is now functionally extinct. Saplings still sprout in the wild, but they rarely survive to maturity. Researchers are working to develop blight-resistant trees in hopes of restoring this once majestic giant to the Appalachian landscape.
Good news
A promising blight-resistant variant is now being cultivated, and seeds are sometimes offered in limited supply through The American Chestnut Foundation, with priority given to members who support their conservation work.
The Red Wolf is the most endangered wolf species in the world. Once common across the southeastern United States, its population has plummeted due to overhunting and habitat loss. Today, only about 15–17 remain in the wild, with another 241 cared for in captive breeding facilities. Conservation programs, such as those led by the North Carolina Zoo, are working tirelessly to rebuild the population and return this keystone predator to its native habitat.
For More information and ways to get involved check out these links
Coyote and Kudzu
This piece highlights two invasive species that have become deeply associated with the South, even though neither is truly native here.
Kudzu was introduced in the 1930s to combat erosion along roads and railroads because of how quickly it spreads. In only a few decades, it overtook the southern landscape, climbing trees, covering buildings, and becoming nearly impossible to control. Kudzu is now so familiar that it’s become an icon of southern imagery—woven into everything from festivals to folk sayings.
Coyotes spread into the Southeast after the decline of apex predators like cougars and wolves. They were also intentionally introduced for hunting purposes, which helped establish their presence here. Though often viewed negatively, coyotes play an ecological role by keeping populations of smaller animals in check, ultimately boosting biodiversity in the absence of larger predators.
By pairing these two species together, this piece raises awareness of how easily invasive species can thrive once introduced, and the complicated ways they reshape the balance of an ecosystem. No matter where you stand on kudzu or coyotes, they have both become unlikely staples of the southern landscape.
Can you think of other species that aren't native to our area that are common?
