(whimsical music) (camera shutter clicking) - I like to call this illuminated sculpture.

It can be in lantern form.

So lantern is a common term that you might hear.

In general with my art, I am inspired by nature.

(bright music continues) Well I'm a visual artist, and I paint.

(paper rustling) And I make illuminated sculptures.

I like to paint things that move me.

I like painting landscapes, I like painting flowers, plants, just anything nature.

I love animals, I love birds the most.

Things that stir my heart.

I'm standing in my gallery, that I have at the VAPA Center.

And I'm surrounded by different pendant lights and lanterns that I have made.

I use either wire or basketry reed for the armature of these things.

And then I cover it with a special paper called Wet Strength tissue paper.

It is just like regular tissue paper but it has an extra coating on it, to keep it from disintegrating (paper rustling) the minute it gets wet.

(bright jazz music) My first lantern was for Mount Holly's lantern parade.

That's what got me into this whole thing.

This snake is actually the first piece that I did.

He won second place that year.

The next year, I did a dragon.

And the dragon was a giant puppet.

In his full form, he's nine foot tall, 19 feet long.

And he has a wingspan of 12 feet when they're wide open and flapping.

His eyes open and shut, and his mouth opens and shuts, and he actually can breathe out.

(material crinkling) So he breathes ice.

(bright whimsical music) I was blessed to be a resident artist for seven weeks, at the Immersive Van Gogh when it was in Charlotte.

And one of the main things I did while I was there was I took the photos of his portraits and I made a pendant light, with that.

And then I also used that light as a collaborative project with everybody who came.

I came up with different color schemes of paper that they could each take a little piece of paper to contribute to the piece.

And that was a lot of fun, to interact with everybody, to see the excitement with that, and to experience people that love art.

I like working with my hands.

And I think I would get bored if I did any one thing.

You know, part of what I really like to do is to learn about things and to problem solve and figure things out.

So, with the lanterns, with the problem solving it's been how can I make it move?

So the dragon moves, the crystal ball moves, the avatar moves.

So I like to paint, I like to do the illuminated sculptures.

They inspire me in different ways.

They present different problem solving issues for me, that give me the opportunity to work out and expand myself, and just grow from it.

I just have a desire to try to share the feelings that I have, and to be able to share the joy or the feelings, the excitement or the calmness or whatever it is that I'm feeling about a thing.

To be able to express that and hopefully share that in a meaningful way, with whoever is seeing the art.