What’s a personal website without a bio? This page is a little bit more about me and my background and how I came to be where I am now. If that sounds utterly dull to you, I recommend clicking on the “return to main menu” button immediately.
So, in case you wanted to know...
The first I remember of anyone trying to urge me in the direction of creative illustration was way way way back when I was hardly eye-level with the table top. My family lived in a little house in Ivans, Utah -near St. George- and my father worked as an elementary teacher at the near-by school of Santa Clara. My Dad is a particularly talented artist and above all an intuitive teacher. It was his idea, I think, to take all my beloved coloring books and replace them with a handful of prisma colors and endless amounts of blank printing paper. At first I wasn’t too happy with this arrangement, after all I had spent a great deal of my life coloring inside those lines! Of course, I didn’t remain unhappy for long and soon found I could think outside the lines and freely drew whatever popped into my head.
So let’s fast-forward a half-dozenish years to when I was about twelve or thirteen, and the movie “Dragonheart” had recently been released with it’s incredibly life-like Draco the Dragon. My Uncle Jeff (Dad’s brother and similarly artistic) was visiting and we got into a conversation about the amazing dragon on that show. “You like dragons?” he asked. I didn’t really know for sure, but I thought a positive answer sounded good. “Well, here” he says, handing me a beginner’s set of drawing pencils. “Go draw him and see what you can come up with.” Thus began my long affair with fantasy creatures. I never did get around to drawing that particular dragon. He had already been created, so why should I spend more time on someone else’s art? But I did draw, oh, hundreds of dragons since.
I was one of those home-schooled kids for a few years before high school, though I still took some elective classes at the public school like band and -of course- art. When I realized how little the teacher at the junior high had to offer I asked my Mom to find out if I could take a class at the high school. So, sketches in hand, I went to be introduced to a truly amazing lady, Mrs. Zan Burningham. She looked at my stuff and I don’t really remember any comment other than something like “yeah, she’ll fit in ok.” and she told me when to show up. I was a ninth grader then and it wasn’t till quite a bit later that I realized I’d been plopped smack in the middle of the most prestigious, competitive, and accomplished high-school AP art program in the entire country. Mrs. B probably just didn’t have any space in the lower level art classes for an “Illegal art alien” as she called me. After looking around at the art in progress I blithely assumed the great work of the students around me was the norm and hopped to with a will. In truth, that bunch were probably the most talented group to come through Sky View’s art room at one time in nearly a decade. But all to the good; I thrived in the creative atmosphere of the Art Room.
Without a doubt Mrs. B holds the record for the most awards and scholarships won by her students, on both local and national levels. It would be interesting to see the dollar amount of all said scholarships and awards put together. No doubt the figure would put the accumulative efforts of the high school’s sports teams (which received much stronger support from the school then the art program ever did) to shame. In the few years I was involved in her art program we students won many major national awards and recognition. For my part, I won awards in county and state several times as well as a nationally offered scholarship to an exclusive two week art camp in Colorado Springs courtesy of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation. The true highlight for me was when I and eight other art students got the opportunity to travel with Mrs. B and her husband over to Noriya, Russia as exchange students for a month.
Despite all the ribbons and recognition graduation came and went without any promising scholarships. At the time I worked as a graphic designer for Carolee’s Creations (now called Adornit), a scrapbook manufacturer. Because I felt I was learning far more there in practical art application I didn’t really pursue the idea of college. I was learning loads about printing, graphic design, and digital art creation and as long as I continued learning, Carolee’s Creations was enough for me. I wasn’t a scrapbooker (I’m still not, and likely will never be) and after a couple years I really started to get a little edgy to move onto something new. About this time my good friend Rikki Stoor (an AMAZING artist friend from high school) called me from Arizona. The previous year she had won the Cathryn Yoder scholarship for women in animation and she wanted me to try for it this year. With only a few weeks till the deadline I quickly put together the required portfolio and sent it in. I have to admit I really did put all my hopes in one basket, and I didn’t have a clue what I’d do instead if I didn’t win the prize. Maybe it was that pure focus that made the Universe pay attention to me but whatever the reason, I won the scholarship! I was off to Arizona!
The next three years brought more than I could have ever expected. I met incredible people, learned some amazing things, and really came into my own as an artist. I worked as a student worker at the school for most of those years and had a chance to really get to know many of the faculty and staff on a more personal level and establish some great connections. There was a fair knot of other students with some really spectacular talent whom I was fortunate enough to rub elbows with, not the least of whom was my most wonderful friend Rikki who got me into the whole animation thing in the first place.
I was also lucky enough to land an internship or two to see what working as an animator might be like in what we students referred to as “The Real World”. My first internship was as a digital inker (think glorified coloring book) for Rindin the Puffer, a short animation that won the studio several awards. The second and longer internship was with Jereye Studios , animating the credit logos for the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica. In case you’re wondering what a credit logo is, it’s the little bit of that plays at the very end of the show’s credits. I learned a lot from both internships. Despite a positive experience and feedback from Fat Cat and Jereye by the end of my college life I discovered that while I was fairly decent at it, animation was not for me. My love of illustration was more driving and my proficiency in some of the graphic design/painting programs (such as Photoshop) led me towards a more graphic-design oriented career. Not long after I had my degree in hand my current job as a year-book illustrator practically fell into my lap.
Post - college life hasn’t been particularly any slower, though I keep hoping it will eventually be. Between moving multiple times, switching jobs, and teaching workshops I’ve been kept pretty busy. My goal now is to get back into the swing of some traditional art, and get away from the computer more. I’m currently working on a sculpting a doll of the witch from Snow White. I even have a few ideas for some crazy water color layering I’m dying to try.
So! Until then, keep in touch and keep an eye out for the new stuff that should be coming before long.
And that’s me in a nut-shell. :)
Mrs. B, Dad, Mom, and Rikki, this website is dedicated to your patience and inspiration.
Especially you, Rikki. What would I do without you to bounce ideas off of at 2 am?
Rachael Smith
2-16-2009
