My Life Thus Far

I grew up in rural Maine, where my mom kept my sister and I entertained with super creative crafts projects. Seventeen years later I announced I would be pursuing a degree in art. My parents were surprisingly cool with this decision. High school and college were attended in Southern California, where I majored in illustration, and took a surprising number of science electives. In fact, I seriously considered an Anthropology major with a minor in Geology to fulfill my childhood dream of being Indiana Jones.

In August 2011 I traded sunny San Diego for sunny Sydney. Living in Australia is another childhood dream of mine (Thank you, Rescuers Down Under), which I'm able to fulfill thanks to my lovely Aussie boyfriend. While I miss my family, friends, and authentic Mexican food, I've come to love Australia's laid back culture and awesome public transportation. Future plans include exploring the country beyond Sydney, and maybe even a quick sojourn to New Zealand.

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Abridged Resume

Education

Palomar College
Certificate in Web Graphics, in progress
Relevant Course Work:
Web Page Design using Dreamweaver CS5, XHTML, and CSS
Flash Animation using Flash CS5 and ActionScript 3.0
Digital Graphics using Photoshop CS5
Basic JavaScript programming

California State University, Fullerton
BFA in Illustration, August 2007
Relevant Course Work:
Illustration using traditional mediums, Illustrator CS, and Corel Painter 9
Graphic Design and Typography using traditional mediums and Photoshop CS

Experience

Owner & Designer, Art of Sally MacKenzie
February 2010 to present
Cool Part: Designing and creating home decor items and custom wedding stationary. Networking with fellow craftphiles and exploring an online community of creative individuals.
Not-as-cool-part: This doesn't pay the bills yet. But you've got to start somewhere, right?

Intern, Titmouse, Inc.
May 2007 to July 2007
Cool part: Assisted animators with character clean-up using Flash for the second season of Adult Swim's Metalocalypse.
Not-as-cool-part: Setting up new work stations, preparing visuals for meetings, and dropping off packages for delivery.

Framer & Lead Associate, Aaron Brothers
November 2003 to July 2007
Cool part: Used my knowledge of color theory and design skills to create custom framing orders. Learned framing industry standards and techniques for creating archival, museum quality framed pieces.
Not-as-cool-part: Performed a lot of run-of-the-mill retail sales and managerial duties.