how I got here:
Storytelling and art are like oxygen and water, necessities that nourish my curiosity and fuel my investigations into the human spirit. I'm fascinated with immersive worlds and finding new ways to tell stories and how to express them visually and/or experientially. My films, stories, and art often use magical realism as a vehicle for subconscious thought, as there is something so extraordinary about the human experience on all levels of consciousness. There is so much magic in the world if you know where to look.
I spent a wonderful decade working in Pixar's Story and Creative Development departments on Academy Award-winning films such as Brave, Ratatouille, Toy Story and Cars shorts, a fantastic visual storytelling education with deep mentorship in creative producing, empathic artist management, and cross-departmental collaboration.
As a painter, I channel in-the-moment emotions and also the interconnectedness I've felt when expanding consciousness through meditation and altered states. Flow states are my happy place of discovery and release.
Growing up on a horse farm in rural Georgia, I had limited avenues for seeing the world, but somehow even in the boonies, there was a video store at the end of my dirt road. I rode my horse to that video store whenever I found change tucked into the couch. Many films were on repeat, like Princess Bride, ET, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars, so my obsession with creating alt worlds within art, film, & story started from an early age.
work history
MissMottMedia, LLC - San Francisco, CA
writer, director, producer, visual artist
UTurnVR - San Francisco, CA
writer, director, producer
Pixar Animation Studios - Emeryville, CA
creative development manager
Pixar Animation Studios - Emeryville, CA
production manager
Airpusher Art Collective - Oakland, CA
art director
Boxcar Pictures - Berkeley, CA
producer
Afterwork Films (Pixar) - Emeryville, CA production designer
technical skills
Adobe Creative Suite - Highly skilled in PhotoShop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere, Lightroom
Final Draft
Google Suite
Keynote
Procreate
Microsoft Office Suite
Final Cut Pro
Airtable
Shotgrid, Trello, Asana
Figma, Miro
Experience with Maya, Blender 3D, Unreal Engine, Unity, Unix, 3D pipelines
education
UCLA Professional Program
Screenwriting
Academy of Art University - San Francisco, CA MFA Film Directing/Animation
University of Colorado - Denver
BFA Visual Arts
University of Colorado - Boulder
BA Environmental Biology
skills
Story & World Building
Production Leadership
Team Management (technical and creative)
Hiring & Staffing
Budgeting
Scheduling
Script Consulting
Look/Pitch Book Creation
Crowdfunding
Story Development
Research
Strategic Planning
Excellent communication skills
what brings me JOY:
power of story and the imagination
immersive experiences
creative producing
abstract painting
collaboration
living spaces
color theory
live music
curiosity
botany
costuming
the beauty within
my smart and sassy daughters
building stuff with electric tools (and sometimes pillows!)
seeing colorful paint under my fingernails
world travel
disco, my fur-ball pomsky
sacred geometry
photography
neon
festivals/screenings/press:
Academy Awards
The Golden Globes
Annie Awards
Cannes Film Festival
Cannes XR Arcade
San Francisco Int’l Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
Google i/o
San Francisco Chronicle
SF Bay Guardian
Raindance Film Festival
UN Women Global Voices VR Festival
Oculus Connect 4 Conference
Samsung Developer Conference
FIVARS
360 Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
Miami Web Festival
Cleveland International Film Festival
Nantucket International Film Festival
SAT IX Immersive Symposium
Wonder Women Tech Conference
Burning Man
KQED