One fateful afternoon I was scrolling through antenna television looking for something different to watch when I stumbled upon Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Little did I know that film would become my favorite movie of all time and that within the next year I’d go on to watch it nearly a dozen times. I was fascinated by the title character of the film Holly Golightly and even more enthralled with Hepburn, the actress portraying the role. I soon found a great fondness in Hepburn’s work and began watching numerous films with her in lead roles. Somewhere along the way I also found actress Grace Kelly and began to adore her films as well. I found pieces of myself in both the women’s character work and many of the classic love stories they filmed felt timeless. The pieces above were created to highlight some of my favorite characters, films, and quotes that were done by the infamous actresses.

The first bottle I chose to paint was intended to repurpose a beat-up, boring, white water flask. When my sister came home to visit she kept trying to sneak it back to Detroit Michigan because she liked it so much. I painted the coy fish bottle for her, inspired by a trip we took to Dollywood together, where we walked across a large coy pond. I gifted her the bottle the next time she came home.

In the 8th grade, I was asked to write a research paper on someone who I thought was inspiring. At the time my sister was graduating from Clemson University. I was asked to write the paper shortly after attending her ring ceremony. During that ceremony they did a presentation on a WW2 Veteran and former Clemson grad who showed great bravery, giving up his ring in imprisonment to survive wartime. The hero, Ben Skardon became the focus of my research paper and he inspired the Clemson based presentation board shown above.

Each year at Christmas my family gets together and we drive up in the Appalachian Mountains to find a traditional Christmas tree. Once we find our perfect tree we usually gather for a Holiday card photo. My sister asked me to paint the NC sign above with something for her mountain home, I thought the previous year’s tree picture might be a good seasonal piece for her.

In my Freshman year of High school, my grandfather passed away. Just before my grandfather passed my dad and his brothers had planned to take him on a beach vacation one last time. sadly he did not make it on this trip. When my grandfather would go to the beach he loved to spend long hours on the pier fishing. Above is a painting I did on an old book from a picture my grandmother took on my grandfather’s most beloved pier. Along the pages, I wrote the Clemson Alma Mater as a remembrance of my grandfather’s second favorite place on earth. To this day it gives me comfort to know he did make it on that fishing trip, just not with us.

During quarantine I started running daily to try to fill the empty time. Each day I would watch an episode of “Friends” during my run. I knew the pace of my run, based on the pace of the episode. During that time “Friends” were my friends and it will forever be my favorite show. I painted the above parking spot in honor of my senior year and the show I love most.