Graceful Gift recreates the exhilaration of performing on stage through sensory based storytelling by Stacy Young and stunning watercolor illustrations by Clint Herring.
Stacy K. Young
AUTHOR
Stacy Young began her dance training at the age of 5 in Huntsville, Alabama. At the age of 16, Stacy was selected to be a member of the Alabama Ballet under the direction of Wes Chapman and Roger Vanfleteran. During this time, she served as a representative to promote the development of classical and contemporary ballet through high-quality performances, dance education, and community outreach.
Stacy is an Auburn University graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education. Following her graduation, she focused on fulfilling her dream of opening her own dance facility. Variations began operating in May of 2007. Stacy’s journey of opening Variations was covered in the Spotlight Alum section in Keystone, the College of Education’s annual publication and in the December 2014 issue of Southern Tatler magazine. Mrs. Young currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Alabama Dance Council.
As a result of her work organizing Variations’s Choreography for a Cause charity performance, Stacy was also selected to serve as a Board Member to Storybook Farm, an equine-assisted therapy center that provides emotional healing for children facing life challenges. She hopes to greatly expand upon the Choreography for a Cause outreach program with her dance students and utilize the Graceful Gift story as an introduction to their interactive educational demonstrations and charitable performances.
She is beyond thankful to be able to provide artistic development opportunities to her dance students while spreading the joy of fine arts to children of all ages.
Clint Herring
ILLUSTRATOR
Clint Herring is a watercolorist whose work is featured in many well-known galleries across the Southeastern United States. Herring grew up in a rural community in Lee County, Alabama. and studied art at nearby Auburn University. During his post-graduate years, Herring worked as an art director for a major design firm during the day and pursued his painting at night. Eventually, Herring decided to begin a career as a full-time professional artist. He currently works out of his personal studio located in Auburn, Alabama.
Art, specifically capturing his subjects in watercolor form, is, in his own words, a “God-given talent.” Herring’s connection to the earth and to his subjects can be seen in each painting of a rural home, dilapidated church or young child. The love he has for art, his family and his subjects set Clint Herring apart as a master of his craft, because the love and emotion bleeds through onto the canvas. The simplicity of his subjects is breathtaking due to Herring’s brilliant uses of shadows, light, colors and details – each piece radiates of life and raw emotion.
His paintings have been exhibited in a number of galleries and museums throughout the Southern United States, and he is represented by Carlisle Gallery, in Auburn, Alabama; John Collette Fine Art, in Highlands, North Carolina; Knoke Fine Arts, in Marietta, Georgia; and the Charleston Renaissance Gallery, in Charleston, South Carolina.