A little bit about me – I’ve been a designer, photographer and a candle stick maker

The Career:

Starting out as a webmaster in 1999 at a small new company, Matrix Group I climbed the ranks and helped build a team of talented web designers. While being a Senior Web Designer, I completed my bachelor of fine arts degree at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Obviously I was been bitten by the photography bug and had my camera set to famous. I started working with Jeff Lubin, one of the top five portrait photographers in the nation, as a Senior Production Manager/Designer. I learned the how to retouch photographs, turn photographs into classic masterpieces, and finally learned how to use PhotoShop to it’s full potential. After a few art shows and and a pile of bills I went back to the web/tech word. I found myself working as a web producer at National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) an NIH branch. I loved it there and being out of tech there were a few technologies I needed to learn. So I hit the books and landed as a Senior Web Designer/ UI at SunRocket a VOiP company, a dream job; which lasted a grand total of 3 months before it went out of business. After that I did a tour as UI/UX Director at a start up software company that produced a DIY ecommerce social networking platform for small businesses; Tradespace, launched with BT and Telmex.  As everything comes full circle I am back in Health IT working at a connected health consulting company as the Creative Director, what I love most about my job is i know that the tools we are making actually will make a difference in peoples lives and health.

The Photography:

At the Corcoran I fell madly in love with photography. I thought to myself I don’t care if I am good at this, I don’t care if I become famous I just want to shoot!” I changed my major from graphic design to fine art photography and locked myself in the darkroom. I had amazing teachers that went beyond instructional but where inspirational; Colby Caldwell, Joe Cameron, Frank DiPerna, Claudia Smigrod, Paul Kennedy, Ross D. Franklin, and Chan Chao to name a few. I did everything from hang photographs parallel to the ceiling to mixing chemicals the wrong way and evacuating the darkroom. Really what I found was a medium where I could produce what I saw in my minds eye. Had a group show in NYC of some of the thesis work and was hooked despite a bad review. However the photographs I was making did not match your couch so sales were slow, and a wedding photographer I became. I shot everything and anything people would pay me for – when I turned 30 I just stopped.

The Life:

There was nothing traditional about my childhood it was charmed. I grew up in Thailand for 10 years, jet setting around the world, acting camps in the summers, winter vacations to Europe, and best of all I was taught to be fiercely independent and that I really could do and be anything I wanted. My mother and Uncle owned SGA, a architectural glass company based in Asia. I moved back to California at 16 and went to college and to take over the world. A few colleges, misadventures and tragic love stories later I moved to Washington, DC. Had more misadventures and tragic love stories, isn’t that was your 20’s are for? Things did calm down when I met my husband to be; Neil,  started having art shows, and was finishing at Corcoran. Everything was going great, better then planned and then I turned 30. Within 12 months we bought a house, got married, said goodbye to my best firnds in the world Bentley, my puppy for 18 years, and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis – needless to say my world was a little turned upside down. Now a few years later the dust has settled and it is time for some miscellaneous creativity!