Paint the town! Monroeville

My first Paint Out in Monroeville — art, stories, small town Alabama

I am so excited to be participating in the Paint Out in Monroeville, Alabama — the town made famous as the home of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. I first read the book years ago in school, and later listened to it again during a long road trip. It’s one of those stories that stays with you, revealing deeper meaning each time you return to it.

I have never been to Monroeville before, but I’m looking forward to seeing the historic courthouse — the one that inspired the courtroom in the novel — standing proudly in the center of town. There’s something special about visiting a place where stories were born, where imagination and real life intertwined to create something lasting.

In many ways, storytelling has always been part of my life.

I come from a long line of storytellers, and my dad was the best of them. He could tell the same story over and over, and yet every time it felt new because of the way he told it — animated, expressive, full of life. Even when I knew exactly what was coming, I would sit there completely captivated.

At my grandparents’ home, Sunday evenings were often filled with family gatherings. There were games, laughter, conversations that stretched for hours, and stories — always stories. I would curl up in the green swivel chair and flip through photo albums, studying faces and places from years before I was born. Sometimes I would point to a picture and ask, “Who is this?” even when I already knew, because I knew it would start another story.
“Do you remember that time when…”

Those moments felt deeply connected — cousins running in the yard, adults cheering each other on, everyone woven together by shared memories. Life felt slower, fuller, more rooted in one another.

Those days may seem long gone, but they are not forgotten. And sometimes I wonder how we might bring that sense of connection back into our communities today — something many of us feel is missing, yet long for without quite knowing how to create it again.

This will be my very first paint out, and I feel both excited and a little nervous. I’m not entirely sure what to expect. Painting outdoors, surrounded by other artists, capturing a place in real time — it all feels like stepping into a new chapter.

But I do know this: whether the paintings turn out exactly as I envision or not, the experience itself will matter. The memories created, the people met, the stories discovered — those are things that stay with us.

Art, after all, is another form of storytelling.

Each brushstroke holds a moment. Each painting carries a memory. Each scene becomes a story that can be shared with someone else.

And perhaps that’s what draws me to Monroeville most of all — the chance to step into a place rich with stories, and to create a few new ones of my own.