"I am an artist. I like to Create Things."

Let me first start off with saying how much I LOVE being here and being a part of this community of people. I have to be honest, I took this whole thing a bit slow. My boyfriend told me about it one day and I was truly a bit weary on how all this worked. After about a week of diving in, exploring, reading, doing a little bit of up-voting and commenting – I came to a realization – this place is amazing. I love how positive people seem to be. I love how this platform connects people from all over the world. I mean, Facebook and other platforms bring all nations together, but I don’t think I have ever come across as much content from such a diverse group of people on Facebook as I have here on Steemit – that’s incredible. I am a bit of a humanitarian at heart, I love all people and cultures – I love getting that glimpse into the little details that make them each so different and so beautiful. The Steemit community appears to be awesome at providing that – so I am thrilled to be here!  

  A Little Bit About Me.  

 I am an artist. I like to create things, make things more beautiful, and capture moments of beauty. There has never been a medium that I haven’t been able to pick up and learn quickly, adapt to, or create with. I love them all – oils, acrylics, pastel, colored pencils, photography, video editing, watercolor, digital art, graphic design, typography.. I mean, if I can create something with it – and it won’t kill me (hah!) – then I’m all in. My grandfather was one of my most favorite humans. He passed two years ago, but my favorite picture and memory was of me at the age of 4, sitting at their hearth in the lower den, painting with watercolors that my grandma didn’t want me to use because “it would be such a mess”! If he had listened to her, and not rebelliously set up those paints for me, there is really no telling if I would be the artist I am today. He always fostered my talent and when my mama would say “I can’t draw a stick figure, I don’t know where she gets it”, I would always reply “I get it from my Papooh.” 

  I went to Art School – and I’m NOT starving (Yayyyy!)  

I graduated from East Carolina University in North Carolina with a bachelor of Fine Art in Communications with a dual concentration in Graphic Design and Illustration (that’s a whole lot of fancy talk for “I got a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration”). An epic achievement that I will have to tell in another story, I am very proud of my artistic education – ECU was a fantastic University and their Jenkin’s School of Fine Art was ranked 10th in the nation and 8th in the southeastern region of the country. And the competition was crazy – they only took 14 of us out of about 70 applicants that semester for the Graphic Design program. Yeah, not everyone gets to be a graphic designer at ECU – just because you told your advisor you were going to major in Graphic Design program didn’t mean shit until you completed the foundations courses, prepared a portfolio from your one year of introductory classes and presented it to a board of Art Directors over the entire school. That small group of individuals reviewed all 70+ applicants and determined whether the last year of your life was going to be the biggest waste of time ever, or you would be able to move forward with your life’s plan. Luckily I was able to move forward and I sit here today, still learning, but making my mark on the world around me, even in the smallest ways. Today, I am 10 years into my professional career and I really, truly can say I love what I do. By day I work for "the man" at a software development company that produces diagnostic software for heavy-duty trucks, by night and weekend I work with my boyfriend to create all kinds of visual solutions for a very wide range of freelance clients. Every project, every piece of art, every place I visit, every photograph I take - I am re-fueled and my passion for art continues to grow. 

 I’m pretty eclectic… 

  I am a lover of all things art, a mad foodie, a freakish lover of cats.. and pretty much anything cute with fur…well pretty much all animals, a movie buff, a water lover (put my toes in the sand, a margarita in my hand and set me free to dance to the rhythm of the waves), Disney fanatic, theme park thrillist, and a curious traveler always dreaming of an adventure. I love ALL music – literally – any style, if it’s not trash for cash, has a great melody and some kickin’ lyrics, I’m going to enjoy it. I love learning and I enjoy experiencing other cultures from around the world – it fuels my inner creativity. I am fascinated by science, especially quantum physics and metaphysics – the theoretical sciences blow my mind and it’s a lot of fun to sit and contemplate deep philosophical concepts with others.  I plan to share a lot of different things here – photography from shoots I do, to paintings I am working on, to design work I may create for a client, to pictures from my travels and goings on! I hope you will follow my journey here on steemit – I am looking forward to meeting new people, drawing new inspiration and feeling the energy that is so exhilarating here on the steemit platform!    Much love to you all – STEEM ON! 

@j-vo

If you enjoyed my post and are interested in seeing more of what I do and where I go, please consider following me, up-voting my post, and re-steeming to the rest of the Steemit community! I look forward to following each of you back and I look forward to getting to know everyone :) <3

All photography and creative artwork displayed in this post were created by @j-vo.