Hi, I'm Kathy, AKA Ms. Cali! Thank you for visiting my ArtWanted site! I have been into web page and graphic design since 2001. I became interested in this field while reading about web page design, and hearing about it from friends. I began taking classes at an online design school and found I really enjoyed it. I spent a few years developing core skills in both areas, and in 2005 enrolled in the Media Arts program at Cerro Coso Community College. As of May 2008, I have earned my Associate of Arts degree in Media Arts, along with receiving the President's Award for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.
Being involved in the arts is especially exciting for me because I was born with a physical disability called cerebral palsy. Aside from walking and speech, my disability also affects my fine motor coordination. As a child, art really didn't interest me because I could not draw or paint. When I was a teen, my coordination improved somewhat, and I enjoyed coloring with my baby sister. I suppose, by that time, I learned the best way to stabilize my hand, and even now she brags about the times we would color together, and how nicely I blended colors.
Patterns and colors always intrigued me, I remember tracing over a placemat which had a flowered design in order to get the layout on paper to color. I loved doing the large posters which you color the way you want, they took me time to do but turned out very nice in the end. People have complimented me many times on my combination and contrasting of colors; I believe I learned this early on, when my mom would dress me as a child, and everything would match perfectly.
My first class in web design showed me how important graphic design was in the field of web design. I saw that the school had several classes to learn how to use Paint Shop Pro, I got hooked instantly and have taken more classes in Paint Shop Pro and Photo Shop. I enjoy graphic design as much as I do web page creation, thus a degree in Media Arts is perfect for me.
In my book, graphic design software is the greatest thing ever invented, because it allows me to show my creativity without me having to paint on canvas or draw freehand. My favorite projects to work on are frames for portraits, digital enhanced artwork, and colorful tags. In the very near future, I hope to start doing greeting cards, 3-dimensional images, personalized frames, and logos to name a few.
Please visit this site, along with my official web site, often as I add more projects to my portfolio, and feel free to add any comments to any of the projects you see here.
Thanks once again for dropping by! :-)
Kathy
