Hopes and Dreams- or some such background info
Hi! I’m a professional designer and digital artist working with free and open source software. I have a bachelor’s degree in art, 12 years of experience working with children, and have been self-employed making artwork, advertisements, content, marketing, and digital designs since 2018.
By now we’ve heard the recession stories multiple times- so I’ll try not to be too much of a rehash-downer, but I graduated with an art degree (& student debt) into The Great RecessionTM and my hopes of becoming an art teacher died like the life savings of a crypto-bro. There just wasn’t much to do with an art degree when the jobs available at the time required advanced degrees, years of experience, and great personal wealth (as the salary was too low to pay for student loans). People in general had less free cash to spend on art. So I held onto a “safe” job working with a school district with hopes of returning to school to obtain my teaching license.
TLDR: I didn’t get my teaching license and now I make art, designs, advertising, and marketing collateral for businesses!
Life Pivots
During my time post college, I dabbled in candid portrait photography. After a few photo sessions, a couple of bands asked if I would design their posters and album covers. Working with musicians, and individuals on digital projects, introduced me to GNU Image Manipulation Program. I was shocked and amazed that alternatives to Adobe existed. Since 2009, I have used FOSS programs professionally to generate: logos, artwork, posters, websites, photographs, branding, document styling, and advertisements.
Why FOSS?
There’s something quaint about knowing the dev team associated with a vital piece of software. I love the idea of free software- free as in freedom – and I don’t like being tied to a giant corporation and their profit driven interests.
With most FOSS programs that I use, I find the small group of developers not only charming, but exceptionally helpful!
Yes, I have found bugs in the programs I use, but I’m able to report them and have a resolution in relatively short order. It is personally inspiring to know a small group of collaborators are creating and maintaining software that is vital to my work, yet is still responsive to input from the community of users.
Why Now?
Well, with a background in physical media, and using software that isn’t widely understood by most designers in the field, I have been feeling like I need to hone and share my personal projects. My brain is sort of replaying that I’m making “outsider art” despite having professional experience in the field and an art degree (not to mention the term is loaded with a bunch of judgement). Plus, it isn’t easy to be a business owner advertising using your current client’s projects. My kid has given me awesome reason to make projects designed specifically for kids- something I’ve not been able to do professionally as of yet! So, yeah, now is as good a time as any to humble-post my personal projects. I hope you enjoy them too!
So you make stuff, what else?
In addition to making art with a drawing tablet, I have been trying my hand at some neat CSS art. I’m not an expert, but that’s ok because hacking together code blocks into artwork instead of function is kind of my idea of a good time. I might share some of those projects here too.
Occasionally I might end up writing about gardening- feel free to skip those if you want. I love to garden and designing a new garden layout is, frankly, how I survive the frigid winter months. My process basically involves scrawling many circles on graph paper, then making digital drawings of the space so my family can see what those circles mean. But because the software I use is not as widely understood in the field, I’ll try to do a write-up after I’ve made something to discuss the process behind it.
I also plan to write-up posts about how I’ve made specific projects, or my thought processes going into new projects too. I’ve been in art school where the expectation is to stand behind what you’ve created and be judged harshly for your work. I guess that’s the goal here too? That’s kind of warped thinking, but I guess I want to make my process accessible for any future designer who is looking to move away from proprietary software. The more of us who use “alternative software” the better off the world will be.
As a naturally introverted person, sharing my own work and potentially posting about my process feels like a horribly huge mountain to climb, but whatever (MN whatever), once I make it over the other side of this mountain, I can sled down.
If you have a project you’d like to commission from me, I would love to work with you to make your idea come to life! Thanks for reading!