Meet the Featured Artists for Art for Jobs 2025

Vincent Clay

Vincent Clay, an active Advance Memphis volunteer, is a native Memphian whose love for art dates to some of his earliest memories. He quickly moved from drawing stick men to painting portraits and landscapes before selling his first piece of art to his aunt at age 10.

Vincent continued to sell art throughout his childhood. After graduating from Westwood High School, Vincent wanted to go to college. But chaotic circumstances in his life led him to join the Marine Corps with the hopes of attending school afterwards, until his battle with addiction derailed those plans. Even while fighting his demons, Vincent continued to pursue his love for art. And in 2003, he achieved sobriety.

A few years ago, a friend asked Vincent to paint a Steelers mural for him in exchange for some space to work on his art — a deal that led Vincent back into regularly painting. At Art for Jobs 2023 — his first big show — Vincent sold all three of his pieces and made a connection that allowed him to sell even more work. Vincent is now living his childhood dream of being an artist.

In 2024, at the age of 67, Vincent enrolled as an undergraduate art student at the University of Memphis. He just began his sophomore year.

Cat Lencke

Following her B.A. in Fine Art in Chester, England, Cat pursued an early career working as a portrait photographer in Europe and later, a Fine Art photographer in Memphis, TN. After many years in this field, she returned to her childhood passion of drawing and painting, specializing in watercolor.

Though no longer her primary medium, Cat’s years in photography led her to create evocative and atmospheric pieces through the use of light in her watercolors. Her process of layering loose watercolor washes and progressively darker, sharper layers mimics the changing focal length you’d expect to see through a camera using a wide aperture lens, in turn producing an almost photorealistic effect.

Often, the very process of studying the natural subjects in her work brings a deepened awareness and sense of awe, further inspiring Cat’s love of the great outdoors and the thematic development of her artwork.

Candice Boatright

Candice Boatright was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, where she lived until she ventured just north of the state line to Memphis to take a job in nursing. In Tennessee, she met her husband David, grew a family of three wonderful boys, and began painting from home.  

A creator from early childhood, she is primarily self-taught and thrives on investigating the world around her and processing what she finds through her art. Her favorite methods use paint and soft pastel to develop color stories that express harmony and completion. Her work is featured in corporate and medical offices around Memphis as well as in private collections throughout the South.