About

My first animations took place in my father's paperback books, where I would scribble flipbook shorts in the margins: Pacman exploding, little people repeatedly injuring themselves…comedy gold. My father, also the art teacher at my school, bought sketchbooks and drawing supplies to encourage my creativity while salvaging his library. After much encouragement I was gifted my first computer in 1985, an Atari 800xl whose crude 4-color animation capabilities led to several short films in high school, as well as titles and FX for home movies. For these films I learned puppet making, prosthetics and reveled in gross-out humor with my classmates. While I was essentially a class weirdo, I was socially functional enough to rope in a variety of friends for these projects.

After barely dodging community college thanks to critical scholarships, I completed my degree at the now closed Memphis College of Art, during which I had a semester exchange at the also now closed San Francisco Art Institute. I got a job doing desktop publishing at Kinko’s Copy Center as I couldn’t afford my own Macintosh after college. Meanwhile I became a founding member of ACT-UP Memphis, designing and printing placards and flyers at Kinko’s late in the night. I got to assist with the first gay pride parade in Memphis and had the honor of unfolding the AIDS quilt at Rhodes. I ultimately burned out after years of having bigots scream "I hope you die of AIDS!" and/or being handcuffed at various actions.

My semester exchange at the San Francisco Art Institute inspired a move west a year after graduation, where I landed in the rapidly gentrifying Mission District during the heyday of Leather Tongue Video and Artists Television Access. I went back to work at copy shops, but after much toil on my portfolio I would eventually become Senior Designer at DesignSite in Berkeley, where I mainly focused on print design and illustration. The promotional brochure I designed for our studio earned a spot in Print Magazine's Design Annual. With the advent of digital video, my focus returned to animation and motion graphics.

In 2000 I moved to the hipster paradise of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and joined the filmmaking collective Reel Sweet Betty, cutting my teeth working on titles and special effects for various independent films. I completed Food, an award-winning animated film shown on PBS and at festivals worldwide. This film was initially created to learn After Effects and 3D apps, but after airing on PBS I was contacted by Director Braden King to work on music videos for Sonic Youth, as well as documentary videos with Laurie Anderson, Björk, Mouse on Mars, Tortoise and others. These collaborations ultimately led to my working with other New York animation studios including Curious Pictures, Gretel, Psyop, Mass Market, Brand New School, Transistor, Scarlett and Imaginary Forces.

In 2005 my photographs of Mikhail Baryshnikov performing in friend Aszure Barton's "Hells Kitchen Dance" were used to advertise the work in The NY Times as well as in promotional posters. In 2007 I designed and art directed MTV's new primetime rebrand at Transistor Studios.

Meanwhile in 2001 my partner and I launched Artfool, a multidisciplinary design studio that featured my graphic design work with his event design. We went on to become one of New York's most prestigious event design companies, later chosen as one of Modern Bride's 25 Trendsetters of the Year and featured on Martha Stewart, The Today Show, The Katie Couric Show and more. Our clients included The Kitchen NYC, Sade, Whitney Houston, Mary J Blige, Dick Wolf, Charles Bronfman and Nate Berkus. In 2012, after 20 years together, our wedding was featured in Martha Stewart. What I thought was a heartfelt exchange of vows was unfortunately myself drinking the very koolaid we administered.

Two years after our Martha Stewart Wedding™ my husband went through a mid-life crisis and began an affair with a machiavellian 29-year old trust fund kid. I left the event business and his mountainous debt, packed my bags and went on a grand adventure driving around the country visiting old friends and making new ones. While in NOLA I met someone who introduced me to the Radical Faeries, a queer collective that has communities throughout the world. I moved nearby one and have been here for 10 years now. Through this community I reunited with an old flame and after many years together we married in November 2024.

I am most grateful for this life and the bonkers opportunities I've had to work with so many amazing studios, directors and artists. It's been awesome to see my work featured in The New York Times, Print Magazine, Motionographer, Wired and my commercial work seen on just about every network. I'm still shocked to see old ads get repurposed from time to time, less shocked to see just how ephemeral so much of this work truly is.

My future plans include creating at least one beautiful work of art that nobody fully appreciates until well after I am dead.