i guess a biography should be something that you the reader would somehow find interesting and relevant to my career. so here goes, i'll tell you something about myself. i was once a little girl, yeah, i know all women were at one point! but, when i was a little girl i wanted to be a cartoonist, an artist i guess, i have never really liked that term, i think it gets thrown around pretty easily. i had a very normal up bringing, you know the type with various step-fathers/mothers and several schools and strange relatives that come in and out of your life? i guess at times i was painfully shy, most people would never guess that today. at times i still am, you know still working out those issues that plague us our whole lives. anyway back to the story...i was a complete tomboy (always trying to prove myself) had dirt bikes(motorcycles,) horses(rodeo every weekend) did bull-riding my last year in highschool and i loved to draw. i told you i was a tom boy! i was terribly influenced by my grandmother, she was an amazing artist in her own right, and unbelievably creative! my father is a brilliant architect in houston, my mom draws cartoons in her spare time and well the list goes on and on of people in my family that spend a great deal of time visually creating something!

what i thought i really wanted was to work for hanna-barbara. you know the TV-cartoon guys? i wanted to create and produce my own cartoons for television. okay so i didn't really know what a "producer" was, but i knew that i wanted to be in charge of the whole thing! from story conception to color choices to final drawing, etc., etc. and anyway after high school, my mother said, (with my best interests at heart, i'm sure) "do you know how many starving artists are in the world?" no!! but i do now:) okay so that crushed my dreams for a while and college (unfortunately!!!) was not an option at the the time. there's a whole list reasons but i don't want to get into those right now! okay..so i got a grant and worked at various jobs while i went to beauty school (still trying to find a creative outlet till i could really do what i wanted) and i was a hairdresser in houston, texas for a several years.

moved to connecticut and left the hairdressing career behind..i was so over listening to the trials and tribulations of the public whining about whatever! started working for macy's department store. (been in the thanksgiving day parade twice!) did a lot of visual merchandising, sales associate, christmas dept. manager, then better women's sportswear manager. and then after working there a few years i ended up with the entire upper floor of "women's" dealing with buyers (ralph lauren, ellen tracy, donna karan to name a few) on a daily basis! and all their attitudes to go along with that, well you can imagine:) when i left, macy's had to replace me with three managers, that's how much work i was doing!! i was recruited by banana republic to be a manager for them. great experience, more long hours, no life, no holidays off...the typical life in retail. did that for a few years and moved to florida, got married and while raising my son i went to st.petersburg college and tested into advanced math and english (not bad for being out of school for over ten years!) i was working towards my AA in education so i could eventually get my masters in fine art. i belonged to phi theta kappa (honor society) while i was going to then, SPJC. at this point teaching art was going to be my thing. i thought that well if i can't pursue the art career myself, at least i can inspire some little fledgling artist that they can do it! while expecting my second child i became very ill and had to put the college thing on hold. so i devoted myself to raising my kids, which i totally loved doing at the time. did the whole mommy thing and still am. you know the piano lessons, girl/boy scouts, basketball, coached baseball for my son, that list goes on and on...kind of like this bio!

when my kids were about 4 1/2 and 7 years old, i was working at a landscape company and had my own "butterfly garden" business on the side, planning and planting for home owners. can't stop creating...i also made and sold mosaic stepping stones and bird baths. one day my boss came over to my house and saw a painting that i had done hanging on my wall and he said. "i want to buy that from you!" i said, "you do?" he said "yeah, how much?" well all of a sudden i put a value on something i painted and well let's just say we couldn't come to an agreement! this has to be a sign...after that i knew that i had to start my art career, i had to finally do something that i had wanted to do my entire life! so i did some investigating and did my first outdoor art show in palm harbor in 1999. i have since done many art shows and a great deal of other projects (which you can see on my resume' page) and much better shows too. now i usually only participate in the "fine art" juried shows that require you to submit slides, get deemed worthy and of course a big chunk of change for the entry fee to get in! it's a lot of hard work (which i have never been afraid of...i truly believe that if you are going to do something..do the best dang job you can!!) i love it though, doing the art shows you get the instant feedback from the public. it's very motivating! it's what i want to do for now..i guess you can relate it to what a musician must feel when they get applause from a good performance. you know that you are accepted, you know you are on the right track. i am pursuing other things as well which involve my artistic career. and i am currently in a few galleries (which you can find on "my favorites" page) and i will be getting into others very soon.

well there's a ton of stuff i am leaving out, just like anyone's life there are all kinds of obstacles and complicated issues that we all go through that make us who we are. i have probably had more than my share, but i wouldn't change a thing. i think that you can see by my artwork that i am a pretty happy person. i wish to pursue life and strive for something better (for the lack of a "better" word.) i will be exactly the "artist" that i dreamed of some day. this is one of the steps along my journey. the moral of the story? well there are a few, but rather than dwell on any negatives, i choose to look at my life as a journey that i am supposed to be on..it took this much time because it was meant to. i am ready now and i love the ride...i'm hanging on tight and i am happy to have so many to share it with. thank you for reading this and i hope that you learned something that might give you some insight to who i am.

~michelle mardis -july/2003