 This week instead of Charles Memms and myself filming our usual outdoor feature We were able to pay a visit to Paula Smith a local artist whose work is currently on display at the Weber Art Gallery at the University of Pikeville. I grew up in Pike County and I was a child who didn't talk much but I did a lot of artwork. Smith creates art that resonates with anyone who has ever grew up in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. One thing I used to do is climb away in the mountains and I would sit in the forest, sit in the woods and I would listen to the trees talk. Every time the wind would blow and the leaves would flitter around I would think they're telling me their secrets and that kind of connection with the mountains and the trees and the dirt and the people and how we talk and how we sound that kind of connection has to come through in my artwork. I want to be true to the great things about this area and I want to be true to the beauty that's in the hearts of the people here too. And on common medium she uses to give her work an authentic feeling of Central Appalachia comes directly from the mountains. One of the things I've worked on has been my watercolour and coal dust. I started going to mines to collect coal and I had to figure out a binder that would make the coal work with the paint and that I did and that's my secret. The first piece I made was 1915 miner which is my grandfather going into the mines at age 17. So to me when I use coal dust in my work it allows the mountains to speak. What's been there you know underground for years and years and years and years now it has a voice and the voice it gives is to talk about the kind of people we are and how we live. Reporting from the University of Papua for EKB News, I'm Ronnie Hilton.