A longer summary of some of the more interesting aspects of my life and random little-known facts (considering the bulleted list I guess years of powerpoint presentation decks has rubbed off on me a bit  :-) 

• Born Donna Marie Zimmerman and grew up in Kirkland, Washington. I recall it fondly as a small eastside Seattle community, but it's now a hotspot of trendy young people.
• Went to Juanita High School over by Totem Lake. Nothing really redeeming about that except that my art teacher (I spent a lot of time in the Art Room) was Lee Bogle, who later left teaching and became a well-known artist from the Pacific Northwest.  I feel that I learned a lot from Lee and think that he had a profound affect on my later interests and style. 
• While in high school I worked summers for the Kirkland Park Department as a lifeguard and swim instructor, guarding Houghton and Waverly beaches and teaching little tykes as well as adults to master their swimming skills at the Kirkland pool. The last summer before I went to college I was the manager of the Kirkland pool.
• Traveled up to Bellingham in fall of '77 to start college at Western Washington University. I think that the year before I entered WWU it was still Western Washington State College. Bellingham is an amazingly beautiful area. I believe that most graduates of WWU would remain in the city except that as a small college town there really aren't the job opportunities there for the majority of new grads. That's what keeps it so special, I suppose!
• Second year of college... ran out of money! Where have I heard that before? For me, what next transpired changed my life: a friend mentioned that he worked summers in Alaska processing salmon for cold storage, and that they were always looking for hard working (read: money hungry) college students for summer hire. I applied and was hired by Sam Murao, the manager of the cold storage facility at Excursion Inlet, a small cannery up near Juneau. During the next 5 years that I worked there I discovered limitless strength within myself to push past physical pain and fatigue as I kept my focus on the goal each summer: live to see Bellingham again with enough money in my pocket to continue my education for another year. No kidding, there were weeks of working 18-20 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sometimes this meant working half asleep and semi-hallucinating: when you're sleep-deprived it can be very weird. It wasn't so bad for me but the folks on the butcher line with the sharp knives were the ones that we always kept an eye on! Other times it meant sobbing over my grading bin for no reason other than my feet hurt, my hands were swollen and I was so damn tired but there were thousands of fish streaming down my chute waiting for me to examine and separate for species, quality and weight. Aghhh... writing this brings back memories!  Anyway, I did this for 5 years, working 3 - 5 months in summer/fall and then returning to take 2 or 3 quarters of college classes.
• I had more than enough money thanks to Excursion but still worked during the school year at Saga - the food service. Met most of my friends there and it became my social hub, as often college jobs tend to do.
• Graduated with a Fine Arts degree in Drawing and Painting at the end of winter quarter in '83.
• A week after graduation I married a wonderful guy and my best friend a (well, we'd been planning that for some time - I had met him at the food service and had gotten him a job up at Excursion summers). Since my career hadn't really started yet I took his last name and succeeded in moving up the alphabet from "Z" to "W"... admittedly I didn't make as much progress towards "A" as far as I had originally vowed to do when I was in 5th grade and irritated that I was always last in the student list!
• Realizing that my Fine Arts degree wasn't going to put dinner on the table, I enrolled in a Commercial Arts course at The Art Institute of Seattle. My husband and I were living in an apartment and he got a job to support his student-wife.
•  Graduated from AIS in '85, so I received my AA two years after my BA!
• While in my last couple months in school I took a part time job with Banner Marketing, which turned into full time when I finished my degree.  Banner was a small advertising company that produced flyers, advertisements and special promotions for furniture companies... I got a lot of experience doing down-and-dirty pasteup in the days before computers! The best part about the job was that it was located in downtown Seattle, just off the Market. It was great being able to walk to Pike Place for lunch or stop at specialty shops in Belltown after work! Still living on the Eastside meant that I had a commute across the bridge, but I became an expert in Metro timetables and used my bus time to good use catching up on my reading.
•  After some time passed at Banner, I happened on an opportunity for a position at a REAL graphics house: H&A. This small shop was on the eastside near Overlake Hospital and owned by a woman who was losing her single designer to one of the larger firms downtown. She was looking for a replacement; someone who could design logos, design & produce collateral material and all-around become a scapegoat for everything that ever went wrong at the company. As naiive as I was at the time, I cheerfully signed up!  A little over a year later when I found myself pregnant and under extreme stress due to the bizarre mood swings and feedback which teetered violently between praise and humiliation (often in the same day!), we parted ways. I, to have my first daughter Corinne, and H&A to eventually die a miserable but well deserved company-death.
• 2 months later...the freakiest time in my life: walking out of the hospital with a 3 day old infant, feeling very much like I wasn't nearly equipped enough to take care of a real living baby. I bet every new parent feels that way! Somehow we managed and she's now made it 23 years despite many nights of endless crying in her crib. Argh!
• After Corinne was 3 months old I needed to find another job... it was hard to live off one salary and save enough to buy a house, something we really needed to do now that the family was taking shape. Looked around a bit and in a short time was hired at Colorés, a company that produced windsocks, banners and t-shirts. As the lead designer (of 3), I was responsible for designing new products, producing catalogs and other collateral material, and creating print-ready art for the screenprinting side of the business. The best thing about the job was that we had licenses with Disney, MLB, NBA and the NFL. It was interesting to work with licensed artwork...
• Pregnant again in '89... my second beautiful baby girl Lauren was born on Sept 28, 2 days after Corinne turned 2. Yep, do the math... they were both New Year's babies! :-)
• Many busy years followed... spent time freelancing, working for some small companies and then joined the ranks at Microsoft in 1990 when the company was still fairly tiny.
• Sadly, after 22 years of marriage my husband and I divorced. We remain on very good terms; he's been one of my best supporters recently as I go through more life transitions.
• In the fall of 2005 I tried to join Parklane Gallery but was denied... needed more maturity in my work. Kept painting....
• Bought a small house in the summer of 2006 and gutted the family room so that I could tile the floor, install a sink and create a real painting studio just off the dining room. Wonderful to be able to have a place to spread out and be creative!
• In the fall of 2006 I again juried at Parklane Gallery and they accepted me into the membership!  After 6 months I was voted in as President of the Board. Doesn't that sound important?!  Well, what it really means is that I really love the fellowship of artists there and enjoy spending time thinking about how we can do good business and bring more art to the community :-)
• 2010 came around and I changed from being the Prez of the PLG Board to being the Treasurer.  Hope I can be nearly as efficient and financially responsible as the previous Treasurer.
• Ah, life... but now....Onward!