I am a chick who calls the Midwest my home, born and raised in Illinois. My non-Midwest friends always tell me I'm "very Midwestern," but I have yet to really figure out exactly what that means. I work at my "real job" in radio, which I am very lucky to enjoy and love; I also do commissions and feelance artwork on the side. My main interest is illustration, but I dabble in art of all kinds. If I can get my hands on the materials and play with them, I will! I love working in mixed media when the opportunity presents itself, covering a piece of paper or canvas with marker, pencil, paint, crayon, chalk, and anything else that strikes my fancy to dump onto a piece of art. Painting, photography, ceramics, and all kinds of design have my interest and I've worked with all of them in the past; I also love to knit and scrapbook, meshing my love for design and photography together.

I love to write, but don't really produce fiction the way I did when I was younger (read: when I was in high school and would write fiction instead of studying.) I began an online comic book called Six Pack of Otters in 2004 and am still serializing it today; my second comic project is called Pimo is Awesome and launched in late 2008. I participated in National Novel Writers Month in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and completed my 50,000 words every time! One of those novels was the original work behind Six Pack of Otters; another novel is going to become a future comic project, dubbed Simon & Sebastian.

I am a sponge when it comes to influences and inspiration. I soak up everything I see around me and can be inspired by the simplest of things. I love music as well, and allow what I hear to inspire me as much as what I see. My other passion that doesn't involve producing some kind of artwork is my little sheltie, Auggie. Auggie and I participate in several AKC sports, including agility and rally-obedience; he is titled in both events and our next goal is to get qualified for Agility Nationals. We also just recently did our first herding trial and it was a hilarious miniature disaster, but with some more training and a lot of impulse control, he should be a fantastic little sheepdog. I've also become something of a runner, finishing my first 5K in 2010 and training for my first half-marathon in 2011. Oh, and wedged somewhere in there between my real job, freelance stuff, training my dog, and training me, I also teach other people how to train their dogs!