I am a chick who calls the Midwest my home, born and raised in Illinois. My non-Midwest friends always tell me I'm "very Midwestern," but I have yet to really figure out exactly what that means. My real job during the day involves web and graphic design, my night job involves teaching people how to train their dogs, and I also do commissions and feelance artwork on the side. My main interest is illustration, but I dabble in art of all kinds. If I can get my hands on the materials and play with them, I will! I love working in mixed media when the opportunity presents itself, covering a piece of paper or canvas with marker, pencil, paint, crayon, chalk, and anything else that strikes my fancy to dump onto a piece of art. Painting, photography, ceramics, and all kinds of design have my interest and I've worked with all of them in the past; I also love to knit and scrapbook, meshing my love for design and photography together.

I love to write, but don't really produce fiction the way I did when I was younger (read: when I was in high school and would write fiction instead of studying.) I began an online comic book called Six Pack of Otters in 2004 and am still serializing it today; my second comic project is called Pimo is Awesome and launched in late 2008. I participated in National Novel Writers Month in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and completed my 50,000 words every time! One of those novels was the original work behind Six Pack of Otters; another novel is going to become a future comic project, dubbed Simon & Sebastian.

I have three little shelties, Auggie, Pepper, and Payton. Auggie is the oldest and retired from agility after completing his master's titles, has a few rally-o titles, loves sheep herding, and I hope to play flyball with him as well. Pepper is the only girl and I hope to do agility with her, but mostly she just likes to cuddle. Payton is the up and coming baby dog, with high hopes for him in agility, dock dogs, herding, and conformation.

My three dogs and various crafty inclinations have led me to start two dog-related businesses: Dogged Illustation launched in 2009, which mainly delivers unique and custom silhouettes but also some charicatures of dogs as well, and Game On! Tags lauching in 2012, offering affordable dog ID tags for sporty dogs featuring hand-carved stamps of my own design.

My dogs are athletes and so am I, finishing my first 5K in 2010, first half-marathon in 2011, and continuing on with half-marathons in 2012 and beyond. My life is pretty busy, but I make time to spend at the gym, lifting weights or attending cycling classes.