- Please tell me the story of where you came from and how you got here. Where born, where raised, where schooled and maybe a little about how your siblings are like/different from you.
I was born in Toledo, Ohio in August 1979.
My home life growing up was very chaotic. I spent a lot of time in the care of random people or my grandparents. We moved frequently and were homeless for a while as my mother struggled with addiction issues.
When I was 7, I spent a year traveling the country with my grandparents in a fifth-wheel trailer and I got to see 35 of the 50 states. It was an amazing experience.
I moved to Tucson to be adopted by my aunt. I now have a brother, Craig, and a sister, Stephani, (who were my cousins, when I was adopted into the family). I have a half-sister named Heather from my birth-mom, a step-sister named Abbey and I have eight half-siblings from my father (whom I only discovered 2 years ago). I have enjoyed learning more about my family’s history.
I’m the only visual artist out of the 13 of us. There’s a nurse, contractor, therapist, opera singer at the San Francisco Opera, theater manager, nuclear engineer, military careers, teacher, it’s really all over the place with us. We all seem to have a pretty great sense of humor about the world, in general, though.
- What did you dream of becoming when you were a little girl? This is my favorite question because it can say something of who we were before the demands of adulthood took over.
I wanted to be an entomologist. I would often be out of the house until 7 or 8 p.m.
I spent most of my time wandering around the desert with an Audobon guide for bugs I found at a yard sale for a quarter. I was constantly getting in trouble for bringing back snakes, lizards and bugs that were interesting to me. In middle school, I joined the Science Olympics and ended up winning a silver medal in state, and ninth place in the nationals in a bug-themed event called “Don’t Bug Me.” I also toyed around with the idea of becoming an orthopedic surgeon for horses or a concert pianist.
- How did you come to work for the Arizona Daily Star, and where else have you worked?
My very first job was when I was 8. I used would take a bucket with cleaning supplies around door-to-door in my grandmother’s trailer park. I would clean anything for 2 hours for $25. I would keep $5 and put the rest into a bank account for college. I started babysitting when I was 9 and did both housecleaning and babysitting. I was a live-in nanny while I was in college and working full-time at Circle K. I had worked briefly at phone call centers, at a cafe, and was a bartender for my first year of college. I would be a nanny at night/through the mornings when I had quit my job as a bartender. I had wanted to work for the newspaper since I was a little girl. The newspaper was a huge part of our morning routine- eat and learn about what’s going on in the community. I fully believe in what we do here at the newspaper and it is a huge point of pride that I am a part of it. I saw an ad in the newspaper for an artist when I was just finishing up in college in 1999 and I applied and was hired. I picked up a second job as a seamstress making hemp and yak hair beanies for the Wylde Men at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. in about 2007 or so, I moved away to Tacoma, Washington just before the start of the recession and was unable to find work. I was running out of savings, so I moved to Portland, Oregon, as it was more affordable at that time. I made money by drawing tattoos for people, cleaning houses and meal prepping for people. I had started volunteering at a theater group and started off as the photographer and was elected secretary historian and served three terms. While that did keep my mind busy, I still needed work so I went back to school and became a certified nursing assistant and got licensed in Oregon. After about six months of working as a C.N.A., a business office manager position opened up at the facility I was working at. I applied and was hired immediately and did that for several years before moving back to Tucson. The Arizona Daily Star was not hiring upon my return, so I worked as a graphic designer for another company until it was hiring again. I don’t ever want to leave again and would very much like to retire from the paper some day. I currently have two jobs. I am a graphic designer at the paper and have been certified through the National Safety Council to teach Traffic Survival School, which I teach on the weekends.
- How has graphic design changed in the time you’ve been in the field?
When I was a student, there was a lot of paste-ups and manual design that went into creating a piece. I even remember cutting amberlith sheets to create color trapping for printing. When I first started at the paper, I would go upstairs to paginate a section and run ads that were printed on a shiny paper through a paraffin wax machine and use a glass roller to stick it to the non-photogenic blue-lined paper that a giant camera would take a photograph of to create the negatives to develop printing plates. Now… everything is done digitally and our plates get immediately created with lasers. It’s pretty astounding, really.
- What, in your mind, separates a great ad from a good ad….and what separates a good ad from an awful one?
A great ad catches your attention and tells you what you need to know within 3 seconds of looking at it. That’s the amount of time you have to catch someone’s eye. It should have minimal text and lots of white space.
An awful ad will have every single bit of information regarding the offer. It frequently has too many graphics, way too much ad copy and is too busy looking, visually.
- I know you have many interests outside your job — can you list them and tell me what about them fascinates you?
I enjoy gardening, fishing, carpenty and metal work. I weld sculpture and shelving using a Mig Welder. I play the piano and the guitar and sing. I sculpt clay, carve wood, engrave coins, make ceramics, swim, play video games, sew and crochet. I am currently learning Japanese, French and Spanish.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to be as independent as possible. If an opportunity came up for me to learn something I did not previously know, I would jump at it. This habit has left me with a full range of hobbies. With art, my grandmother had been a Girl Scout leader and had a basement full of art supplies. I was allowed access to them whenever I wanted and spent most of my time building doll houses and sewing outfits for my toys. In Ohio, my grandmother would grow most of our food in the garden and our cellar was full of jars of food we had grown and processed ourselves. I like creating things, whether it is food, music or art.
- I am betting you have an interesting philosophy about life. If I am right, will you share it?
I don’t know that I’ve ever sat down long enough to properly organize a whole philosophy. Most of what has gotten me through life has been a stubborn independence combined with an absurdly optimistic outlook on life. If I were to distill it all down to a single bit of advice, it would be this:
Do not concern yourself with how long it might take you to accomplish your goals. The time will pass regardless of what you choose to do.
- If you could give the leaders of this company one piece of advice, what would it be?
Please let us work from home forever. I would like to be closer to my family as I do not have any out here (but never want to leave this company again!). It would allow everyone the freedom to live where they wanted while working where they wanted. What an amazing work/life balance that could be.
STARDOM 