Q
How
did a girl from Kansas end up in a place like LA?
A
On
the side I started my own company Pingorama with a couple of partners. We designed
and manufactured clothes for kids. Before long it became a full time job and
we were in over 400 stores. I had finally found a outlet for my whimsical side.
The company is now concentrating on licensing some of the hundreds of designs
and characters I came up with.
Some
20 years ago while I was going to college I did courtroom drawings for the local
NBC affiliate. I was in the newsroom the day they unpacked the new weather computer.
As soon has I picked up that electronic pen and started drawing on that tablet....
I knew I was hooked.
On
to Boston to do computer graphics for industrial videos and commercials at a production company.
Boston
to Phoenix to work for NBC doing on-air graphics for news and promotion. I won my first 2 Emmys there.
Then
on to Los Angeles where the fun really began. I freelanced for a while then went
to work for Aurora the company that makes the computer graphic software "Liberty",
for TV stations, production and film companies. They use it for graphics, animation
and compositing. I traveled all around the world doing demos and training. I
helped design the software interface and their marketing materials.
After
traveling for a couple of years I settled down to a company called VisionArt
in Santa Monica, California. I started doing digital compositing for commercials
and movies and I loved it. I learned to do 3D textures for movies like "Star
Trek: First Contact" and "Godzilla”. I was on the Oscar winning
special effects team for the movie “Independence Day”. And I won
my third Emmy for one of the Star Trek series.
