I spent my early childhood on the northwest side of Chicago, and later relocated with my family to the small town of Marengo, Illinois. I spent much of my childhood time creating and crafting, playing with my sister and neighborhood friends, and letting my imagination take hold of me. While friends got older and life took over, I never gave up on my creativity, and eventually decided to make a career out of it.

I enrolled in The Illinois Institute of Art at Chicago as a Multimedia and Web Design major. I worked freelance graphic design gigs and kept myself busy outside of college with a part-time job as a barista (and also created chalkboard art for the café). After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a GPA of 3.9 (out of 4.0), I quickly moved into a career of multimedia graphics and illustration for a software and publishing company, which led to a promotion into a dual position of project managing and art directing. After that, I switched industries and became a Sr. Graphic Designer at a computer hardware and accessories company, creating designs for packaging, web pages, trade shows, and magazine ads. In early 2010, I relocated to California to live out a dream and now hold the role of Sr. Graphic and Web Designer in the Marketing Department for a health spa.

In my personal time, I enjoy creating my personal art. I work in a variety of mediums: pencil, acrylic, digital, chalk & pastel, watercolor—and any combination of them—with subject matter depending on what has recently inspired me. Many of my inspirations come from those childhood memories, nature, colors, beauty, life, irony, and family.

I believe I have a technical approach to art. Others may call it by a different name, but I feel my good perception of spatial relations, mathematical mind, and good sense of balance has helped me become a successful artist. I can directly thank my mother's artistic skills and my father's mathematical/scientific mind for these qualities.

EXHIBITIONS & PUBLICATIONS

• 2011 AIDS LifeCycle Fundraising Art Auction and Benefit, Ace Hotel and Swim Club, Palm Springs, California

• 2010 Mail Me Art: Medium Without a Message Exhibition, Red Gate Gallery, London, UK

• 2010 Art Diaries: Bound Exhibition, 4ArtInc Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

• 2010 Tangerine Treehouse Art Show, Tangerine House, Palm Springs, California

• 2010 AIDS LifeCycle Fundraising Art Auction/Music/Raffle, Space 120, Palm Springs, California

• 2009 Square Foot Art Show, The Galaxie, Chicago, Illinois

• 2009, November. Published in OK Periodicals, Issue 3

• 2009, October. Published in Cut-Click Magazine, Issue 13

• 2008 Square Foot Art Show, The Galaxie, Chicago, Illinois