“Don’t get weird on me, Stephanie.” My mom said it when I was thirteen-- but I did it anyway. Growing up I always looked at life a little differently than my peers.  My mom would tell me how I had inherited the creative side of the family, always making sculptures out of mud and sticks while my brothers excelled in sports, for which my highest accolade was getting hit in the head with the ball far to frequently. Instead, I found my real skill and passion in the creative world. My love for photography developed after my dad gave me his old Nikon F3 film camera. I later enrolled in the dark lab photography class in high school, where I was perpetually inspired by my teacher, Ms. Doty, who had this incredibly strange obsession with horses and (more specifically) the movie Black Beauty, but  I digress. She made photography into more than just taking pictures. She damned conventional thinking and changed the lens through which I saw the world. There was no weird, there was no wrong, and she had us thinking outside of the box.

While I have moved on from film, mostly due to cost and accessibility, I’ve fully immersed myself in the realm of digital photography. Over the past decade, I have grown a successful business out of my fervor for capturing moments (the big, the small, and everything in between) in people's’ lives to preserve them for generations to come. I shoot weddings, lifestyle portraiture, and more, constantly finding new and exciting ways to expand my knowledge. When I entered college, my understanding of art and the creative world was turned on its head. I was fortunate in that my art department allowed for wiggle room so I was able to dabble in multiple disciplines including digital art, art history, ceramics, figure drawing, and numerous other concepts and forms previously foreign to me. This is where I developed a specific love for vector artwork. Straight out of college I started full time as a production artist at a t-shirt design company, CustomInk, where I was overjoyed to work with vector-based art every day. Working professionally as an artist for over six years has cemented my love for all things creative and has only increased my thirst for more knowledge.

About two years into my time at CustomInk, I took advantage at an opening in the Charlottesville, Virginia office. I had been working in Tysons Corner, Virginia prior to that, and was extremely excited to move to a smaller city. Never has a place influenced me more. The people, the culture, the food, the setting--everything was more than I expected. It’s a city that I hold dear to my heart and it’s made me a better person. It taught me to be more kind, as it’s a small city everyone says hello to you. It’s much easier to meet the owner of a bar or restaurant, and quickly become friends. Living there I felt such a sense of pride for the city. I embraced everything local--the food, the drinks, the art--everything told a story. One of my favorite venues was two blocks off the downtown mall, simply called “The Garage.” Nothing more than a stand-alone, one car garage; it was locally funded and hosted musicians, dinner parties, and art galleries which were all open to the public.

While I loved my time in Charlottesville, I moved back to northern Virginia in search of growth and job opportunities. Nothing seemed like a good fit, and growth at CustomInk was scarce. I even tried some online courses, as I was feeling stuck and unfulfilled. Through recommendations and encouragement from friends, I explored the idea of graduate school. It wasn’t long before I encountered the VCU Brandcenter. Early into my research, the program was already checking off all the boxes for what I was looking for: smaller school and class sizes, strong emphasis on creative ability, students from unique backgrounds, high job-placement, and students who are proud to be part of the school and program. I was craving a challenge, and stumbled right into it.

Failure is a large part of life. I’ve met it many times, learned from it, adapted it to it, and extracted the lessons from it that I could. There have been so many times I thought I couldn’t do something, but that is wrong. Instead, try, struggle, and practice--it’s controlled failure. The many times throughout college and after I submitted my work to galleries and was told no, or went out for promotions and was turned down, job interviews that never panned out. Equal parts lesson and devastation, but I had to use them to teach myself to move forward and evolve as a person.

I have long had a passion for the creative word. When looking at advertisements, print media, films, or even video games, I examine the creative aspects and imagine what I’d do better. From font to layout, it’s something I cannot help but do. Pursing the art director track would allow me to better visually communicate ideas for a single purpose. Being able to develop mood, concept, and messages through design and art is a skill I constantly strive to improve and achieve. Going out to dinner can be an entire dilema with friends, because the menu, branding, or advertising can be so poorly designed that I can’t focus on ordering--when design is done well in from start to finish it can not only be visually appealing, but aid in the final product as well.

If you ask my mom today if got weird, she will probably tell you “definitely,” but while I may be a little silly, bonkers, or mad; if Alice in Wonderland taught me anything, it’s that “all the best people are.”