By the time Travis Koury was 14, his hard working single mother and his 10 year old sister had lived in countless apartments and living conditions. Because his mother worked as a bartender in the evenings to make ends meet, the two children had become, in Travis's words, 'feral', enjoying an independence from rules and obligations. When the family moves in with his mother's boyfriend, a small town construction contractor, things change. Rules are established and Travis and his sister are given daily chores. On an early Saturday morning, the mother's boyfriend wakes the children and demands they spend the day distributing flyers for his contracting business. Distraught, Travis and his sibling make short work of the long day's assignment.

Travis Koury is a ceramics teacher and student at