I discovered I was an artist when I was about 12 years old. Kids in my classes kept asking me to draw things for them and I always thought: “You really can't do this yourself?” That’s when I learned that art was a unique strength of mine.
In high school we were required to choose a major and I was excited to learn that they had just started offering art as a major. Perfect timing! After graduation, I headed to Mass Art for college, during which I also started offering art classes to 7-12 year old students who went to public schools that did not have the budget for art programs.
I discovered how much I loved teaching and went on to become an art teacher at an all-girls school in Quincy. Though I adored the students, my teaching salary was terrible and I heard that a thing called "The Internet" was gaining traction. I figured I'd take out a loan and learn how to make some of those new fangled “websites” I had heard so much about.
I went back to school at Clark University to earn my certification in graphic design and web design, then opened my own company, Click-on-Nik, and started looking for clients. Apparently I was ahead of the game. People didn’t really understand what the internet was or why it would make any difference if their business had a website. While I waited for people to catch on, I taught Art History at Katherine Gibbs University.
Business started to pick up and I was honored to work with healthcare institutions like Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass General and Faulkner Hospital along with one of the unions, the Massachusetts Nurses Association. I also built numerous small business websites, learning how great it felt to know that my skills made a difference in people’s lives.
In the fast-paced world of the Staples Ad Agency, I was responsible for the emails that Staples sent to its business customers. And at one of the most incredible jobs I’ve ever had, I re-built the website for the Massachusetts State House after discovering that their current website was created in Microsoft Word!
I worked closely with representatives from each major office within the state house, created an interface that tracked the progress of bills as they made their way through the state and senate offices, and created profiles for every senator and representative that made it easy to contact them. And I got to work on-site in one of the most magnificent, historically significant buildings in the United States of America.
I currently live in Wilmington, MA with my husband and two boys. In addition to teaching art classes and working with clients, I am also a photographer for families, businesses, schools, teams and events.