Erika Smith - Hayes:  

In the summer of 1991 my parents decided we were to move from Orange Park, Florida to Taylorsville, NC where I actually graduated from Alexander Central High School. Tough year since everyone knew everyone...except for me, the outsider. Anyway, after graduating in 1992 I took a couple courses at a community college pursuing Nursing...what was I thinking? That quickly faded because it obviously was not my passion. So for years I tried figure out what and who in the world I was! (We'll come back to that story shortly) In January of 1997 I was introduced to my "man" Charles (Charlie) over the phone through a mutual friend. He was in Arkansas (a youth pastor), I was in North Carolina. He came over to meet me face to face on Valentine's day of 1997 (awhhhh). We totally clicked and prayed that if God didn't want this; He would totally shut this down. Well, I married him 6 months after we met! We just celebrated out 11th anniversary on June 21, 2008! Wow! Ok, so after we married we moved to Panama City, Florida. After a couple times of moving back and forth from Florida to NC we finally landed in Atlanta, Georgia. You may wonder how we got to Atlanta; well, my oldest brother, Bobby lives here with his wife Connie. We would always pass through Atlanta on our way to visit my parents in NC, but we never stopped to actually visit to check out the Big ATL. When we did and I saw all there was to offer...I LOVED IT! I felt so alive; like people were "going somewhere" in their lives. We felt at that time we were just dying. Where lived (in Panama City at this time) had nothing to offer and we didn't see a future there. We knew it would be difficult for us to even make the move, let alone putting down deposits, etc. when we got here. Well, my Mom and Dad called us up one day and said THEY were moving to Atlanta! What a SHOCK! We weren't even expecting that. We just figured they would stay in Taylorsville forever. Within a very short period of time they bought a house here and offered for us to move into their basement for "pennies" until we found our home. We bought our first house 9 months after we moved to Georgia. After being here for nearly 5 years it's very clear that this was a great move. As far as work, (I told you I'd come back to this) I've done so many things just trying to figure out who in the world I am. I worked for this guy who I went to church with in Panama City. He called me in his office one day and said, "Erika, you don't belong here". I thought, well, that's nice, thanks Chuck! He told me that I was creative and I should be doing some type of interior design or something creative. (I worked in an office for him...doing BORING filing. No THANKS!) I didn't see myself as being creative at all! Little did I know, he was so right on! I realized later that everything I am is surrounded by creativity. Wow, what a concept and a liberating one at that. All the gifts that God has given me are "artsy". Singing, playing guitar, photography, decorating..etc. I didn't even realize it until he told me that. So at age 25 I began to realize that was what I needed to figure out and pursue - something in the arts! So I've worked for an interior design firm in Panama City - then to Blowing Rock Furniture in North Carolina. All the while I began taking pictures and have been camera happy for years. It wasn't until about 4 years ago that I got a job to take pictures of these little kids who went to our church. The girl that hired me said "you really should do this for a living, you're great with the kids and the pictures are so good". So...here we...Expand for more