I Say Stuff...: My Friends...The Artists

I consider myself fortunate to have grown up where I did. Raised in a rural area of central Missouri, I was afforded the opportunity to be schooled in a place where, for the most part, things operate according to the old Cheers cliche...everybody knows your name. My high school alma mater sits among farmland, my hometown has one stoplight...it's rural. Growing up, though, I never thought of this as being a bad thing. I didn't feel as though I was missing out on anything by not being in a more urban area.

But somewhere along the line, I think I might have subconsciously bought into the false notion that the most creative among us, the artists/thinkers/makers, don't come from small towns. I'm not sure why I did, but I kind of accepted in my early years of adulthood that the most bohemian of souls were products of urban culture, not Missouri farmland.

And this has given opportunity for the rise of social media to be of honest benefit to me. Over the last few years, Facebook, Twitter, and the like have helped me move past this erroneous idea that the rural man's artistry is somehow inferior to that of the city-dweller. How has this happened? Well, I've simply watched some of my Callaway County comrades blow the lid off such nonsense.

Here are four friends from my old stomping grounds who, over the years, have truly become artists of the highest caliber. It's pretty awesome to stand off in the corner of the big room that is social media and see how art, the desire to explore, express, and to create, has become such a central part of each of their lives. I've provided links to check out their work and hope that you'll spread the word. They're all great folks, and more to the point, artists who remind me that top-notch creativity can and does come from the country.

1. Beth Snyder and Carrie Shryock, operators/partners @ One Canoe Two Letterpress