Name: Rebecca F. Miller Campbell
Age:30-something
Location: Eastern KY
Occupation: Artist, Entrepreneur
Where you can find me: eBay, Etsy, Myspace
Interests: poetry, art, primitive furniture, chipped paint, photography, music, concert hopping, design, gardening, cooking, preserving food (canning), contemporary poets, paper items, graphic design, creative organization, nesting, sewing, white spaces, barns, appalachia, DIY.
Music I like: ryan adams, iron & wine, ani difranco, kings of leon, willie nelson, the features, the manchester orchestra, pink floyd, the doors, alice in chains, mgmt, the duke spirit, waylon jennings, tori amos, counting crows, ralph stanley, the black rebel motorcycle club, nancy griffin, emmylou, the black crowes, the frogs, the drive-by truckers, smashing pumpkins, the shins, joni mitchell, janice, john lee hooker.
An interesting fact about me: I am a self taught artist. I grew up in Lee County, KY until the age of 12, then moved to Wolfe County, KY, home to Edgar Tolson, one of the most celebrated 20th century folk artists. As a child, our family doctor was Paul F. Maddox. A trip to the doctor, for my brother and I, meant that we got to run to the tall glass case & gaze at all the ‘wooden little people’. We had no idea that we were looking at a massive collection of coveted folk art. Dr. Maddox allowed Edgar to display his art in the clinic & randomly Edgar would bring collectors by to view. Dr. Maddox was the recipient of many of his pieces in exchange for medical care. I wonder how many people in Wolfe County & neighboring counties were inspired by (or for the little ones viewing–shaped by) that collection.
I wrote this a few years ago as an ‘About Me’ on my personal website. Since the original writing of this, I’ve grown in immeasurable ways, added a husband to the mix, moved, moved on, acquired new skills. Despite that, I think it is still the truest reflection of me as a person…as a daughter, a sister, an Appalachian, a poet, an artist. It answers the hows & whys and, I think, one of the ultimate questions when it comes to any form of art: what makes an artist an artist?
I am a product of all the love I’ve experienced or been witness to in 29 years. I am a Southern girl who memorizes moments & feelings & tries to articulate them as best I can so that my history is well documented & my love catalogued. So that no one ever doubts exactly how they made me feel. I am a girl who is in love with living. In love with all the small seemingly insignificant moments that occur every day…that make this life chaotic / messy / moving / beautiful / sorrowful / ugly / extraordinary. I am a girl who lives for words & songs, soft hands on foreheads & conversations that are not necessarily spoken. I am moved by grit, by grime, by people who roll up their sleeves & dig into the mess, without worrying about the consequence. I believe we all have the ability to heal. Ourselves & others. I believe we have to choose healing. Everyday. In the smallest of ways. Even if it’s sometimes just reminding ourselves to breathe.
There are pieces of everyone I love inside me. I collect stories & memories in every inch of my skin. I love hard. Because it’s the only way I know how. Because that’s the type of love I’m accustomed to. Because that’s the type of love I’ve received.
I am Mamaw’s doodle eggs, Dottie’s strawberry freezer jam, Marcie’s kindness, Billie’s belief. I am Joan’s cat head biscuits, Lisa’s chuckle, Andrea’s adventure, Tammy’s down home persona, Sam’s wit, Beverley’s slip stitch, Marilyn’s childlike perspective & Scott’s loyalty. I am Barbie’s daughter, Junior’s daughter, a girl who was placed in the most tender hands during the summer of ’78. I am someone so moved by the people I’ve met & cared for–they’ve each become an intricate fiber in the make-up of me.
I am one in an anthology of men and women, boys and girls, believers who were meant to be celebrated & remembered–a girl, plunked down in these hills, just trying to get this right–just trying to take in all that I can possibly take in and at the same time, give all that I can give, in whatever form that may be.