About the Art:

"In 2017, I began drawing in public to connect with and better understand my community. The method was simple: every month I’d identify a common public place where I had no real experience and then go there and draw every day for 2-3 weeks. I drew at my local gas station, a local park, downtown at Broadway, in Franklin at a family farm, and at my favorite underground concert venue, Nashville’s Basement. One place I visited was the Justice A.A. Birch General Session Courthouse in downtown Nashville. Anyone can attend public trials. For those visits, I slid into the back row of many courtrooms and drew on an iPad to try my best to capture the consequential discussions, arguments and judgements happening before me. During my visits I was humbled by the solemnity of the proceedings, the palpable hazard of each outcome and professionalism of the public servants I witnessed. My goal was to use my drawings to capture a fraction of the nervous air in those proceedings".  

"Fast forward to 2025. A local news outlet saw my work online and asked me to be a court sketch artist for a federal trial where no electronic devices were allowed. I drew for local news outlets throughout the spring of 2025, covering United States vs. Casada & Cothren, and later that summer, the numerous detainment hearings of Abrego Kilmar Garcia in Nashville’s Fred Thompson Federal Courthouse. As public interest in the proceedings rose, these drawings were circulated nationally on television and print through Fox, CBS, Univision, CNN and ABC".