Currently an graduate student at the University of California Santa Cruz, Darrell McKelvie Ruppel is a practicing artist and life-long student. Participating in open studios, trunk sales, theater performances, and gallery shows, he explores the relationships between his audience and his foci, addressing sociopolitical and environmental understanding while instilling tranquility through everyday actions, photography, and performative sculpture. Darrell was raised in the mountains of Southern California and now enjoys the hospitable company of Santa Cruz, California. Brought in as a basketball recruit for the university as well as an economics student, he has undergone large lifestyle changes upon discovering the freedom of expression through the arts–and has never looked back.