Well it was a long time ago, and Indiana does seem like a world of it's own, I was born the first child of 3 to a couple of awesome parents. I got to grow up in New Mexico, where my grandmother was sure I would be "kidnapped by Indians". No kidding! Hey, it was a long time ago…
I also spent many summers with my uncle on a farm in Indiana where I learned hard work and good ethics. In my down time I loved to paint by number and draw. In high school art classes I discovered pen & ink which is my favorite medium. I even sold my first art work in 11th grade!
My senior year I got my scuba diving certification, thinking I was going to be a marine biologist. Instead, I signed up for the Navy where I eventually got to explore Scotland and England from a ship based in Holy Loch. Love me some English fish n' chips!!
Following military service, I traveled around the U.S. doing construction and odd jobs, finally settling back in Albuquerque. After giving the starving artist gig a good run, I decided to attend the Art Center to get a Graphic Design degree while I also worked as a bartender. After college, I moved with several friends to Houston, Texas where I landed my first job as a Graphic Designer with a monthly magazine, creating all of the graphics and advertising. And sweating my butt off - it's miserable hot there!
I followed that job up by going to work for a weekly newspaper and some more bartending (and sweating) until I met my incredible husband (working on our 24th year now) and we moved to Palm Springs, California for the 1st stay (been back 3 times now).
In Palm Springs, I was lucky enough to start work with a top advertising agency as an art director creating logos, illustrations and ad campaigns for various clients in the real estate field. Several years (and locations) later, I opened my own Graphic Design business and began delving into the field of web design. Being able to work remotely was perfect since we couldn't seem to make up our mind where to permanently plant our feet. Hello Texas, Tennessee, California, Indiana and Hawaii! I know, right?!
We've finally settled down in beautiful Yucca Valley, California, where I'm still doing freelance web design & development, email campaigns and illustrations for the advertising agency I first began with over 19 years ago.
Now as a certified web developer, I get to combine my love of creating art with my right brain and my left brain's love of logic (and puzzles) to code websites in HTML, CSS, Javascript & PHP. In the fast-paced web development field, learning is never finished; every few months there is a new program, framework or language jumping up to be learned and tested. Keeps the mind spry, as my grandfather would say. I know the excitement never ends!
Speaking of excitement, I've now partnered up with a fantastic artist and designer so he can create inspired website designs, in Spanish and English no less, and I can push the limits on making these designs come to life with code.