Where to start?.....

My father was a simple man of simple means... okay that is too far back.



I started out in college as a studio art major, but in order to keep my scholarship I needed to find a major that was much less subjective. For some unknown reason, I decided on mathematics. I took a cartography course in my Junior year of college. It was like coming home. It was comfortable. It was warm. It made me happy. It was the perfect blend of the aesthetic of art and the analytic of math.

This class was the last class to be taught with any traditional cartography. My first map was a map of Ohio using flexible curves, and Leroy lettering sets. After that map was done, the professor let us use Adobe Illustrator. I got my minor in cartography and went on to get a masters degree in Analytical Cartography/Spatial Analysis Methods/Geographic Information Systems. Since I got the masters I have ben working at an engineering architecture in transportation planning. I have made a boatload of maps for public involvement purposes and government NEPA documents. The stuff I do on a daily basis can vary from an intersection map that is 2 x 2 inches, or a city map that is 72 x 44in.

Lately, I have found that drawing where new roads might be in 2035 is not as exciting as it used to be. I figured out that I have been stagnating in my current job, and it is not nuturing my creative side in the least. The people I am working with are not really that innovative, so basically what I have been doing for the past 3 years is what I see me doing for the next 3 years. No movement and no growth. Therefore I have slowly been regaining my artistic chops, only this time in a digital medium. I am trying to get some graphic design stuff done, some more artistic stuff done, and now I am looking to blend together that whole art and science thing.

That is why a I am here. Now if I could only learn to be more succinct.