Left brain? Check. Right brain? Check. Busy brain? You bet! I love color, art and design. I also love science, data and structure. My outer Artsy Fartsy and my inner Penny Poindexter happily co-existing while trying to make sense of life in a pigeonholed world. I've had a lot of experience doing a lot of things. Sometimes splashy, sometimes spare, but always well-considered and intentional.
I am a thinker and a researcher. I am endlessly curious and I love to learn. Words are also sort of my thing. I adapt easily and always look forward to the next project with enthusiasm and a twitchy sense of possibility. You can check out my resume here. It's been fun. And, pretty fulfilling. But, truthfully? I can't wait to see what’s next!
An unexpected plot twist:
I also have a medical resume. You can see it here. Opportunity presented itself and curiosity took me on a very rewarding nine-year healthcare odyssey. I never stopped designing. I just worked a ton and added some invaluable, privileged experience to the seasoned well that I now draw from. Biggest takeaway? Always be nice to your caregivers. They have the hardest job on the planet.
Some fast facts:
I've lived in Chicago for a long time, but I'm still squishy for Ann Arbor.
I pay VERY close attention to politics and current events because I care.
90-Day Fiancé? Guilty as charged.
I have a posse of totally excellent friends.
I am an incurable night owl.
I am a skillful curator.
I get my best ideas in the shower. It. Never. Fails.
Interior design is my happy place and I have the Pinterest to prove it.
I am totally head over heels in love with two little Japanese otters named Hana and Kotaro.
I suffer from horror vacui. Look it up!
As a child I was a biter but I’m over it.
I am a culinary failure.
I have never been to Disney and I’m okay with it.
I Love:
Animals
Gardening
Reading
Porcelain (gaudy Italian and Delft)
Manhattans (Maker’s, sweet, rocks, 3 cherries)
Hummingbirds
Vernors ginger ale
Peaches
Perfume
Pop culture
Shiny things
Soup
Snow
I DO NOT Love:
Entitlement
Heat & humidity
Cruelty
Cottage cheese
Mosquitos
Harsh lighting
Sloppiness
Synthetic sheets
Yelling
Sci Fi
Itching
Losing things
Litter
A peek under the hood:
Way back in time (like, waaaaay back), Christian Dior did a series of serialized print ads for its fashion lines. Photographed by the legendary Richard Avedon with copy provided by Doon Arbus (Diane's daughter!), the ads featured three mysterious fictional, dubiously-related, sexy, glamorous characters... the Wizard, the Mouth and Oliver. Collectively, the Diors.
The ads featured the trio in various suggestive scenarios that chronicled their debaucherous adventures in taut photography and minimal seductive copy. Relying heavily on implication and innuendo, the ads were like a magnet that totally sucked me in. Every month I would eagerly look forward to seeing what roguishness they would be up to as they cavorted across the pages of Vanity Fair and Vogue.
I loved them. I was inspired by them. I wanted to know them. I wanted to be them. One of my favorite captions from the series –
If anyone had asked them how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, they would have answered without hesitation, "Three."
– was transformative. The line was cheeky, impish and so provocative. I've never forgotten it.
Maybe it was the time and place I was in that made those ads have such an impact, but they truly changed my approach to problem-solving. They so beautifully illustrated the power of story to captivate that they compelled me want to capture their same skillfully edited edgy incisiveness in my own work. They ignited a new inside-out way of thinking that has resolutely stuck with me throughout the many iterations of my career and all the places it has taken me. Not just in design, but in the courtroom and to patient bedsides as well. Wherever I’ve been, with every communication to this day, I’ve continually chased that original Dior thrill.
By now the process is automatic. I always try to determine, “What exactly am I trying to say?”. Then, how can I say it in a way that gets someone to engage more, think more, understand more, feel more, do more? For me, clarity of intent, precision of focus and nuanced delivery are the keys to effective communication. Whack ‘em on the head. Poke ‘em in the gut. Yank ‘em by the heartstring. And, if it’s a good day, tickle ‘em with the clever.
My goal is always to be compelling enough to illicit pause. To invite closer consideration. To delight or startle or inform or organize or simply cut to the chase by sending out an intriguing chirp in a world full of noise. Storytelling is my means. It’s my best way in. And my best way out. So, while I truly worship the pretty, provocative is my failsafe way of making the connection.
And that, for what it’s worth, is my story.
Meet my provocateurs, the Diors…
A few other early major influences:
First lessons in composition. Plus, that LOGO!!! I loved it so, but I could have never told you why. Endless hours of sticking and re-sticking.
Arm in Arm by Remy Charlip
A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations and Other Echolalia
Need I say more? I must have read this book (or made my Mom read it to me) a hundred thousand times.
A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations and Other Echolalia
Need I say more? I must have read this book (or made my Mom read it to me) a hundred thousand times.
Bob Gill. I should be getting rent for the amount of space you take up in my head. Still. R.I.P.
This show!!! From the way she walked, to the way she talked, to the sets, to the costumes, to the merch. Unparalleled, coordinated, outrageously original, branded perfection. Not an unconsidered element. To this day I have never been so gobsmacked by a performance. Divine!