When Jennifer was small, she wanted to be an artist. She was the kid in school who would draw a picture of your favorite musician or heart throb (never horses!) But she had to get serious, so studied science and chemistry and went to a university for engineering.

Eventually, she disappointed her parents and ended up getting a BFA in P&D, not a fiscally sound decision. She made small paintings, then ginormous paintings. It was that era. Ones that wouldn’t fit in the back of a pickup truck. She showed art, and opened a gallery with a few friends to some minuscule acclaim. She lived in a dark warehouse with no heat and had small jobs that would pay rent. She surprised herself by getting a full scholarship to grad school and made sculptures and videos and installations.

Ironically, when she was about to graduate, she came down with a crippling chronic illness. With no health insurance and little cash, she watched her painful hands and feet twist and bend on cheap steroid prescriptions given to her in emergency rooms. With an MFA, she luckily began teaching in universities, jobs with insurance, jobs that still paid so little. But she loved the students and the studios and access to a giant wood shop.

When San Francisco beckoned with lucrative dotcom income and an escape from the Texas heat, she sold everything, quit her professor job (crazy her friends said) and headed West. To earn cash and insurance she learned front end and UI and ABM and lost a tiny bit of her soul in marketing. Marketing jobs that fueled her joint surgeries and modern drug therapies.

Then she quit. Now she makes little paintings in a little studio. With heat.