I was born in Morris, Illinois in the winter of 1978 and from the moment I could pick up a pencil I would draw. My parents and teachers were very encouraging and so I was enrolled in special art classes from grade school through high school, entering contests and shows. It was in high school that I discovered my "signature" drawing style. I graduated from Columbia College in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Illustration and learned how to create websites along the way, polishing my skills in graphic design as well. Currently, I am a graduate student in the New Media Studies Program at DePaul University. I am a liberal feminist / Christian Universalist happily married since 2000 to a brilliant atheist-philosopher-chef. I am attracted to intellectual stimulants: the bizarre, the beautiful, the hilarious and I live for world travel and gourmet food. My heart is also attached to my Siamese cats. Music keeps me going, some of my favorite artists being Tori Amos, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Movies that inspire me include 300, Pan's Labyrinth, Elizabeth and Brotherhood of the Wolf -- visually-rich works; films by Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion and Christophe Gans. On the flipside, I also love cheesy horror flicks. When I'm not reading for school, I am party to a suburban book club. And, of course, I live and breathe art. I thrive on the inner sanctum I find in the point of the pen; it is when I have my "out of body". My average drawing takes 6-8 months and that time is therapeutic. I draw on a flat-top exotic wood desk with a piano seat and clawed feet (with matching painted toenails) which my very artistic dad made for me: meta art at its finest. As dark as the subject matter is in many of my illustrations, I believe God is in the details. And I am very grateful to get in touch with God through my gift.