ANDRE RAY

Nature, wildlife, Native Americans, travel, history, and music have always been my interests. Art was always encouraged at my house. Around the time of the fifth grade my parents gave me a catalog from the C.M. Russell Museum. Most of my early art training came from copying images of cowboys and Indians from that catalog and from many of the other nature and history books I found interesting.  Being in the Boy Scouts encouraged my love for the outdoors. My Mom’s family had many artists. My great aunt, Mary Kathrine Loyacono McCravey was a profound influence in my life. In 2004, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for art by the State of Mississippi. I remember sitting at her table while she showed me how to draw trees. She also had many stories of other Mississippi Artists she knew like William Dunlap and Walter Anderson. While in my sophomore year at Mississippi University for Women she had an individual exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art. 

In 2000, I was awarded Outstanding Student in Drawing and Painting at Mississippi University for Women. After graduation my main goal was to continue painting. I soon returned for education and taught for a year at Starkville High School for the 2003-04 year.  Soon thereafter I pursued Art Therapy graduating from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. I loved my Art Therapy studies. I was fascinated with how artists came up with their imagery. In art therapy we studied how the arts impact culture and how making and witnessing art can bring people together and serve as a catalyst for healing in therapy.   Upon returning home, I found a renewed interest in Southern culture, and I rededicated myself to art and using art in service of the community. 

Since returning from Kansas, I have worked with the elderly doing art at several nursing homes, tutoring kids in Hearts after School Program in Columbus, and I gave a speech on Native Americans for the daughters of The American Revolution on Native Americans. Recently I taught art at a drug and alcohol treatment program in Columbus. While teaching and community service are dear to me, painting is my true passion.