By Morgan Kilgo | Broadcast Reporter

The Art Center of Waco’s artist in residence, Joel Edwards sold his first piece of art when he was 12-years old. Since that moment, Edwards knew that he wanted to be a professional artist.

“There’s an inner drive in me,” said Joel Edwards. “It’s an inner drive to paint and create.”

Edward’s collection is made up of mostly landscape, portraits and figure drawings inspired by his family memories and personal life experiences. His favorite piece of work is a painting is of Joel’s father standing over his son’s shoulder, teaching him how to use a compass.

“There’s a viewing platform at DFW where you can watch the planes come in and take off. We were out there one day and he was kind of over my son’s shoulder showing how to use a compass,” said Edwards. “I called that ‘Pointing the Way.’”

Edwards describes his style of art as “loose-realism.” This means that he paints and draws real objects, but his creations don’t look as real as a photograph. Instead, you can see the brush strokes and pencil marks on the canvas.

In a fast paced social media driven world, Edwards stressed the importance of people being involved in the arts and learning to tap into their own creativity ability, regardless if they’re are good.

“I had never heard of Joel Edwards before, one of my friends suggested I come check out his work,” said Austin sophomore Lily Wise. “I really like it, anything with nature I really like, especially with animals.”