Personal Introduction

So who is the chick behind the art, then? Well, my name is Doña Bumgarner, I'm 30-something, living in Santa Cruz, CA, with my wife and our two cats. I wish I made art full-time, but I don't. Most of my time is actually devoted to the computer industry. I spend my days as a project manager for Apple Computer. It is actually a pretty good gig - I work with some very smart, creative people.

I've been making art for a really long time. I started with watercolor classes when I was just a kid. You know how kids are convinced they really want to be about 20 different things when they grow up, depending on when you ask? All I ever wanted to be was an artist. Somewhere in the middle of college, when I was working as a legal secreatry during the day and taking art classes at night, and couldn't afford a car (and could barely afford the room I was renting), I realized that it was going to be really hard to make a living as an artist without leaving Northern California. And I really like California. So I finished my degree and got a "real" job. It took me about 5 years to realize I couldn't really not be an artist, even if that wasn't how I was earning my main income. So I started painting again, and that brings us back to where I am today. I find that I've settled into a very odd mixture of geek girl, activist feminist, hippie chick, artist, and pointy-haired manager. And you know, I like me this way.