who i am

I am an engaging, thoughtful, and exceedingly talented woman. I see the world with an artist's eye and am extremely resourceful. I have dubbed myself a creatrix extraordinaire, as the term artist seems to mean so little in common parlance. I strive to do well at all I turn my hand to, and to exceed expectations as much as possible. I tend to be one of my harshest critics.

It is important to me to demonstrate not only my intelligence, in the conventional sense, but my emotional intelligence as well. I am extremely contemplative and am sensitive to the world inside me and of the people around me. It is my desire to do work that is meaningful, beautiful, and useful to my fellow humans, with hopefully no compromise on any point.

what i'm doing now

One job I have now is as a personal assistant to a woman named Fay, in Redmond. I am assisting her with general organization and re-design of her home. I also clean, repair, garden, and do whatever needs to be done. One task has been photographing and curating her son's art pieces from adolescence. This job I enjoy a great deal; I feel a good many of my skills are put to use and appreciated.

Another job I currently hold is working for John Blunt in his Live Edge business venture. Up to this point, I have been designing, constructing, and finishing one of a kind art lamps. It is foreseeable that my work will soon include some web design and site management. It has been a great pleasure to have so much creative freedom, as well as the opportunity to work with my hands... and power tools!

I'm also developing this website, scrupulously pulling together my portfolio and résumé. As my son grows older and will require less of my daytime hours while he's in school, I look forward to more full time employment and/or possibly further school. I have an interest in the graphic design field, as well as web design and UX. I have also begun to consider studying for a Master in Architecture, most likely at the UW.

brief personal history

I was born in the 1980s to math teacher parents in northern Illinois. After several consecutive moves, my family made its home in Edinburg TX of the Rio Grande Valley. My parents separated when I was seven years old. My younger sister and I lived with our mother but continued to spend time with both parents... and at their respective churches.

By merit of testing, I skipped first grade and then attended the district's gifted and talented magnet elementary school. I began my study of the viola in sixth grade. Through high school, I was involved in local and state orchestral groups and competitions, including two seasons with the semi-professional regional symphony. I also participated in French language events, AP curricula and testing, and a newly developed graduation plan that was the impetus for my first publication.

I declared a major in studio art and studied a wide range of art- and non-art-related disciplines at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I created an extensive GeoCities website (RIP 2009) under the guidance of a peer, learning HTML and then web-publishing my poetry and fiction. The markup for this website is done entirely by hand. I played in the school symphony and studied abroad in the UK and Italy. I even made it on the dean's list once.

I did nearly all of my work-study in the slide library where my profound analytical and visual skills were very happily employed. During the summers back home, I did clerical temp work for various companies. I completed my senior thesis in oil painting, graduating with a BA in 2004.

The following school year, I moved to Seattle to study culinary arts at the Art Institute. While the coursework spanned four quarters, I quit at the beginning of the third due to personal reasons. I moved in with my then partner in Bellevue. I'd been working at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Ravenna but quit in the summer of 2005, also due to personal reasons.

That autumn, I began work as a nanny to a third grade boy, started a creative writing group, and learned that I was pregnant with my first child. My son, Jasper, was born in the summer of 2006. I labored at home for twelve hours and then went to our birth center where he was born an hour later in the birthing tub.

My domestic life had been struggling and, after a brief "baby honeymoon", continued its decline amidst the demands of early parenthood. In the spring of 2007, I taught after school art classes to area elementary students through a small local company. In the fall of 2007, I worked as a SAHM nanny. At the end of the year, I moved out of my partner's house.

I stayed with friends in Snohomish until I was able to secure employment and housing in Seattle. I worked PT as a nanny in Madrona with my son in tow, bicycling to work during the summer, busing through much of the cold weather. In the autumn, I opened a webstore to sell my handsewn goods.

See my facebook page for updates about current employment and projects. I continue to write, though more often self-expositorily than poetically. Parenting keeps me busy, but I also read, practice yoga, build community in my building, hone my culinary skills, experiment with design, and generally become.

If you'd like to know more, feel free to email me.