Renaissance Woman

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. My mother and sister are both artists and, as a result, I had a lot of influence growing up. When I was in elementary school I enjoyed drawing cartoons. I always thought I would grow up and be a cartoonist. Drawing cartoons also allowed me to deal with frustrations in my life by playing up the humor in the situation. So, in a way, art was a sort of therapy for me (and still is, from time to time).

When I got into high school I was in the art honors program. I painted all the time. I found a lot of inspiration in fantasy artists in Heavy Metal Magazine. I could have probably gotten a scholarship to attend a great art school. But, as it turned out, I was also a slacker. As a young adult, I found more inspiration from surrealism and pop surrealism artists. I loved Juxtapoz magazine and I moved away from fantasy art. I pushed the boundaries of my art to new levels - finding inspiration in everything around me.

These days I tend to create art in spurts when the mood strikes me. I've always considered my art to be a personal thing. It is just something that I have to do from time to time.

The first memories I have of writing for pleasure are from middle school. I would write humorous short stories about all kinds of things. In high school I found a passion for writing in a creative writing class. I was one of the most active students in the class. I kept binders of poetry and stories and spent all of my free time on them.

Now I write for Demand Studios, Associated Content, and here at Squidoo. You can visit my writing page on my personal website to see some more of my work.

I was a performance poet for about five years. I also ran my own open mic night for a short time at the Upper Deck Tavern in Charleston, SC. Poetry around that time began as a response to a couple of failed relationships. As a result, a lot of the poetry I wrote was charged with anger. They would refer to me as "the angry readhead."

These days I am a much happier person and only write poetry from time to time when I feel inspired.

The Prophecy of the World

The notes have rung with the water drops
Spilling a sea of memories forgotten
Some seventeen years ago
In the life-sized dollhouses down the block
And the boats that land claimed
With the tallulah tango of wind pins
And soft sins won by faces in the heavens
Drawing out nautical miles on prolific minds
Catastrophic limbs outstretched to unknowing lands
Still caught up in acts of generosity
While hoarding all the water and gas cans
With their plastic red and yellow trim
This whim of a weekend
Where we seek ends to never-ending fights
I swim home to the safety of my rooftop
Cursing clouds as long as the walk that brought me here
Whispering hope of great disaster to bring rebirth to us
My oar as long as the rifle you bear
And the clothing you wear
Still snug with damaged water's way
I say the notes have rung out our prophecy
Wedding pureness with her misery
These indecisive winds
And fate still inescapable
By time that reaches still
Like the stillness of one's heart
In the winds that pulled apart their lives
And prolific minds grow tired in thought
As the water rises, again
Peeling layers to what lies beneath
What once were these precious hours before
I say the notes have rung out our prophecy
Wedding pureness with her misery
These indecisive winds
And fate still inescapable

Read more poetry on my personal website.

Photography has always been a natural thing for me. But it wasn't until I found my first abandoned building that I really began to take my camera seriously. I would spends hours a day on the weekends trying to find something interesting to shoot - image hunting.

At one point I was fortunate enough to make it into the Babcock Asylum and the South Carolina Sanatorium to take pictures. The Babcock Asylum was breath-taking and an experience that I will never forget.

Now I try to take every opportunity to grab a picture. I have a wonderful little captive model in my son who ends up being the subject of most of my photographs these days. I hope to travel in the next few years and will probably have loads of new pictures to share with the world.

I have been attached to the computer for at least 2/3rds of my life at this point. What do you get when you combine computers with art? A graphic/web designer. Yes, I know my way around Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver. I have designed a number of websites, business cards, brochures - you name it.

While I am mostly self-taught, I also took a lot of classes in graphic design at Trident Technical College while I was working on my general requirements towards my bachelor degree. Lynda.com has also been an amazing resource when I want to expand on my skills.

You can see more of my work at Web Design Takeout.

As I said before, I know my way around Photoshop and Illustrator. As it turns out, I also do a little illustrating here and there. I have collection of work over at Shutterstock and a few things on various other microstock websites. I find Shutterstock to be the easiest to work with and thus most of my work can be found there.

Illustrating on the computer has always appealed to me because of the ability to go back and change things. I love being able to change my mind about colors or being able to duplicate objects easily. It is also very clean and perfect - a standard I could never possibly reach with my fine art.

I am a mommy to a beautiful little girl (Phaedra) and boy (Kai). Phaedra was 11lbs 2oz when she was born (top that!) and thus I am also superwoman. Luckily Kai was only 7lbs and came out with three easy pushes. Being a mother is a wonderful thing for me. I am constantly surprised at how intuitive children are. I wouldn't trade my children for the world.

Phaedra is amazingly smart and is always catching me off guard with the things that she learns. I know she is going to do great things when she grows up. Kai is a little comedian. No matter how bad my day is, he makes me smile. That's what children are for though. Right?

I have the best husband in the world. Not only does he put up with my insanity, but he encourages it from time to time as well. Hehe.

We met in 2005 at Monday Night Blues, a weekly open mic poetry event in Charleston. No, it was not love at first sight. In fact, I was very cold to him and we had a bad first impression all around.

It wasn't until two years later that we would come together, randomly, like two comets on the same route. They say it is only after you stop looking that you find true love. That is precisely how it occurred for us both.

To this day I truly believe he is my soul mate.

I have been working on and off towards a bachelor degree and I am almost to the finish line. Although, at this point I am considering grad school as the next step. College has changed my life in ways I never imagined. It opened my mind to so many things that I didn't know existed.

I am also very glad, despite the criticism I face as a 30-something college student, that I decided to pursue college later in life because I am much more focused and determined than I was in my early twenties. I encourage everyone I know to pursue an education - no matter where they are at in life.

Last, but certainly not least, I LOVE experimenting in the kitchen. Like art, the mood has to strike me. But when it does, I can come up with some pretty unusual creations. My favorite things to make are thai tuna cakes, guacamole eggrolls, and deviled tomatoes.

I also combine my love of photography with my love of food and photograph practically everything I make. Maybe one day I will come up with a crazy cookbook.