Brandon Moultrie’s first art experience came at age 7, when he built a diorama from a Krispy Kreme box.

VALDOSTA —Brandon Moultrie’s first art experience was when he was 7.

He remembers having watched an episode of “Spongebob Squarepants” encouraging viewers to use their imagination.

So, that’s what he did.

He grabbed an empty Krispy Kreme box, cleaned it out and then made it into a diorama.

It’s something he continued doing, recreating scenes from Spiderman or fairy tales.

“I just loved messing with boxes,” said Moultrie.

As he got older, that led to an interest in architecture.

“My junior year of high school, I got into architecture. I loved seeing different perspectives.”

At the same time, he got more and more into art and illustrating. Eventually, that’s what he decided to pursue.

“I wanted to be an illustrator because I like to tell stories.”

He came to Valdosta to attend Valdosta State University. While he initially planned to transfer after two years, he ended up staying for VSU’s art program.

He had his first show in October at Grassroots Coffee for a piece that he started back in March and ended up working on for five months.

It started as a direct study for art class.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do. At first it was going to be about people I met here, their stories and how they affected me.”

As Moultrie started sketching ideas, the piece changed, as art sometimes does.

What started as a piece about certain people became a piece about the burdens people carry with them: social anxiety, depression, alcoholism, materialism, bad relationships.

Done on a white canvas in graphite, the piece is made up of two long rectangles, each roughly 8 to 10 feet long.

It all works as one flowing piece, but within it are separate sections: people trapped in bottles, figure falling through darkness, a mountain of stuff, a mound of empty cardboard boxes, and towards the end, a group of people huddled around a person in a kind of prayer circle, in attempting to lift the person up.

Pinpoints of light break through the blacks and grays throughout like stars against the night sky.

It’s no surprise, then, that while trying to figure out the title for the piece, Moultrie and his friend Willington kept tossing around the words “star” and “burden” until they hit upon “Before Our Burdens, We Were Stars.”

With the piece finished and officially shown, Moultrie is entering it into scholarship programs.

As for future work, after five months of graphite sticks and pencils, Moultrie is glad to move to colors. His current work plays with bright oranges and deep blues, canvases that almost radiate with hues.

“I want to keep working, of course, and make more shows. I want to try and study abroad, get more exposure.”