Georgia Girl Art

How I Became an Artist

My mother first learned that I was an artist when my 2-year old preschool teacher called her to meet and she said that in all of her years of teaching, she had never seen a 2-year old stay in the lines of a coloring book! I won an art poster contest in the second grade for our school fair. My aunt was a very successful and talented artist and she taught me how to draw when I was growing up. My mother was also an artist who passed along her innate talents and she always encouraged my creativity to flourish. In my sophomore year at a girls only prep school was the monumental year when I learned how to paint with watercolors as we sat outside and painted a row of houses on Rivermont Avenue in downtown Lynchburg. I received the school art award. When I transferred to a coed prep school, I sold my first painting which was hung in the school hallway and I also won the school art award in my senior year of graduation.

I continued my studies in art at the University of Georgia and I graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree, majoring in painting. The UGA art building (then called the college of Arts and Sciences and is now called the Lamar Dodd School of Art) was my second home when I wasn’t participating in football game day festivities, fraternity parties, or partying with girlfriends in downtown Athens. All of my jeans had specks of dried oil paint and I smelled of turpentine and paint thinner. I was one of the only college students who had original art on the walls of my condo (instead of posters). My senior exit show for my class was one of the most exciting days of my life.

Graphic Design

I vowed never to use a computer when I graduated in 1995 so I sold portraits and worked at the High Museum of Art. Then the big technology boom hit and it seemed like overnight everyone was using computers and had an e-mail address. I realized that I needed to stop living in the dark ages and I went to computer school full time. My father had been preaching to me all of this time that I should work in the field of commercial art and he fully supported me in my new mission. He was the kind of father who supported me in anything I ever wanted to do. He bought me an electric guitar and a drum set one year for Christmas when I wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument. When I ran track, he bought me a shotput and a discus. Over the years, he always helped me my haul my artwork to showings, helped me to set up, came to the event, and helped me clean up and take everything back home that didn’t sell.

Learning How to Use a Computer

Not only did I learn how to turn on a computer and use a mouse, but I learned how to use all of the office programs as a foundation before jumping into graphic design! I loved it so much and realized that this was a way that I could make a stable income and support myself as a single woman and still fulfill my creative desires. I also took an html class at Kinko’s and got my first job as a Web Designer at a telecommunications firm. I build the whole site in html. I worked in the engineering department and even helped fix other employees’ computers and maintain the servers.

Professional Career and Riding the Dot Com Wave

Since then, I have worked as a graphics and marketing coordinator for a hospitality software company and an advertising director for a dot com (which was very fast paced and short lived). Then I worked as a Senior Cognitive Designer for an eBusiness agency where I built Flash and Dreamweaver prototypes and dabbled with Premier. We developed a process that we called “visioning,” where we met with clients and learned about all of their requirements, listed the desired functionality, and planned out the site architecture before starting the design. I established the process where the designers would draft a site outline, page layout mock-ups, and navigation map before the actual sites were built. My focus was the front-end design and we had a team of developers who we worked closely with to implement these sites. But this firm was also short lived and after September 11, 2001 and the big Enron crash, the Atlanta office shut down and they moved all the work to headquarters. I stayed on as a freelancer and worked for many different clients to include BP solar and Coca-Cola. I sold many portraits and hand painted products (i.e., pocketbooks, wine glasses) during this time.

My Artist Husband

2003 was a transitional year for me because I married my husband, who is a talented architect and artist. He is my toughest critic with an exceptional eye for detail. He helps me make my artwork the best that it can be. His best word of advice was to mute my colors a little bit (instead of bright turquoise skies, tone it down a bit and bring out those Nantucket grays). We enjoy traveling together and sketching in our sketchbooks. I always knew that I had to marry another artist because drawing and painting is such a big part of my life and I wanted to be able to share that experience with my true love and my dream came true!

Getting Married and Going to Work at ICF

The week of my wedding, my contract job ended at Coca-Cola and I applied for a graphic design position posted in the AJC at ORC Macro when everyone else told me to take some time off for the wedding and honeymoon. One of the best decisions I ever made was to apply for that job because I’ve been with the company ever since I walked in the door to interview the Monday after my honeymoon. It’s been a great eight years! The company has grown and changed its name a few times (we are now ICF International) and I have been given the opportunity to work for the CDC and specialize in public health, where I do good for the community.

At ICF, I started out working in the Publications department, focusing on print design, with a few Web projects. After 5 years, I applied for an internal job opening as an eLearning designer job and I have learned all kinds of new skills with eLearning!

Harry Bissett’s Opportunity

In 2009 I sought out a new opportunity to sell my University of Georgia tailgating scenes at the Atlanta Harry Bissett’s restaurant and I became pregnant with twins. During this year, I spent all of my free time painting and I filled the private dining room at Bissett’s with my art. I sold a good amount of paintings there, established a new clientele, and found my niche in subject matter of UGA tailgating art. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed from lack of funding the month before my twins were born.

Taking a Break

After the birth of my twins in 2009, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which caused me to take a two-year hiatus from painting. My father was my role model, best friend, cheerleader, and biggest fan (as I was his). He was always enthusiastic about my artistic ability, even in the days when I made minimum wage at the High Museum of Art. He was so proud of my paintings and my parents had my art displayed all over their house. He even decorated his office with my artwork, which was published in the Lynchburg, Virginia paper. Both of my parents have always been my biggest fans and always encouraged my art and graphic design career. This devastating loss that caused my family so much pain and suffering took away my creativity will until I could rebuild my spirit.

Healing

My children kept me happy and alive even in my darkest days when I suffered from losing my father. On top of everything else, we had to move and renovate a new house. My husband was very supportive and took care of the children for me so that I could spend the night at my parents in my father’s final days. I had signed up for Web design classes that month and it was the best thing for me because it kept me busy and preoccupied with learning new Web design skills. I had only taken one course in Emory’s Webmaster Certificate program and we were still getting settled in our new house. I also had twins to take care of and a full time job. Keeping groceries in the refrigerator and keeping the house cleaned on weekends left little time to paint. I was studying every free minute I had when the children slept.

Back Again at Full Force

It has been a busy year. We are settled in our house and the children are almost two years old. Things are getting easier. Right now I am obtaining a Webmaster Certificate from Emory University and I am already putting my skills to use on various projects at work as I have transitioned into a Web Communications Specialist role. In this final capstone course, I am rebuilding my online portfolio to obtain Web design experience and I will finally have the capability to market and sell my artwork and art products online.