Join me on a trip through our homeland

KyForward is happy to welcome Jeffrey Scott Holland to its family of writers and reporters who care about Kentucky. This is the first of his regular contributions to KyForward.

Please allow me to introduce myself.

Hello, Kentucky! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be working with the good folks here at KyForward, and I look forward to comparing notes with you about the people, places and ideas that motivate us in our homeland.

The name’s Jeffrey, but you can call me Jeff, JSH, “hey you,” or “that guy with the hat.”

I’m from a little place called Waco, Ky., on the Madison-Estill County border, but I tend to think of the entire state of Kentucky as my home, from Ashland to Newport, Pikeville to Paducah.

Some of you already know me from WRFL, Cut Corner Records (remember them?), Bear’s Wax Records and my book, “Weird Kentucky.”

Many more of you I have likely met over the years at the local exhibitions of my hipster-primitive paintings and performance art at the University of Kentucky, Gallerie Soleil, Detour, Starbucks, the Hip Joynt, the 37 Center, Troy Teegarden’s SoUP festivals, Voodoo Video, High On Rose, Victorian Square, the short-lived Virtual Gallery on Limestone and charity events like silent auctions for St. Peter’s Early Childhood Center,  to name just a few.

Plus, my old art studio, which is now, sadly, a vacant lot.

Unlike a lot of people, I don’t disown my rural upbringing. I revel in it.

There are those who seek to whitewash all “simple” aspects of rural life in the South, even to the politically correct point of being offended by shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

These are the people who would homogenize Kentucky to the point of being indistinguishable from anywhere else. These are the people who cannot abide the knowledge that I, Jethro, walk among them.

Well, naysayers, here I stand. I love what Kentucky has to offer from both its rural and urban components and offer no apologies for who I am, what I need or what I want.

I have no use for the negative snarkiness that now dominates the Internet to the extent that people now think, “Well, this is just how life is and this is how people are supposed to act.”

I will use my soapbox not to ridicule or to mock or to belittle but to extol and exalt all that interests me and excites me. And I’m interested and excited about a lot.

Come along with me, and let’s see what else we have to be excited about in the days and weeks ahead.

Jeffrey Scott Holland is a native Kentuckian, painter, writer, actor, musician, paralegal – and interested in all things. He joins a growing stable of talented, interesting regular columnists for KyForward.com, bringing his gift of a well-turned phrase, quirkiness and humor to entertain and enlighten — and sometimes provoke — our readers. He can always be reached at any time, by anyone on the planet, at jshpaint@gmail.com.