To pursue art was never a question. As long as I can remember, there were never any nervous claims as to what shape art would take in my life. Art would largely persist, instead, as the medium through which I would observe and reflect the beauty I absorb everyday in my surroundings. I have never been displaced from my excessive admiration for the life I have been given. My community, my family, my hometown and even the traffic lights that line its streets are to be beheld. All of it demands to be synthesized into expression. What began as young hands tracing the line of the kudzu vine that wraps around my house, manifested into writing poetry, publishing zines, painting murals, sewing quilts, and any other artistic endeavor I could manage. What has for many other young artists existed as a pursuit one could leave at the easel, has eluded passion and taken over my field of vision and mindset. I believe that what my awareness has provided me is only suited for the reimbursing hands of reciprocity. I will create to serve what I have been afforded. While this ambition will persist unwaveringly outside of the classroom, I long to bolster my interest in the quality of my craft. To learn, fail, exhibit, teach and grow by way of arts education has been clouded by the desire to provide income for myself and attain financial sufficiency. Oil paint, film photography and color printing of zines are all noble pursuits, but costly in the wake of minimum wage earning and no financial support awarded from my family. To be considered for the Hunter Dean Temple Art Scholarship would provide freedom from the qualms of monetary insecurity and allow me to create with unabridged potential.