This is something of a rather personal, strictly non-professional little profile for you to get to know me a bit better. I know that I'm always curious about the artists I'm peeking at when I'm online, and maybe you are, too?

Name: Kate Ruggeri
Birthday: October 4th
Occupation: Visual Communication Student; part-time florist and cashier
Home town: Katy, Texas

I was born in St. Louis, Missouri and lived most of my life out in South County near Afton. I have two very happily married parents, John and Cindy, and two brothers. Joe, the elder, has a wife and son now while Matt, the youngest of the three of us, is just now starting his freshman year of university. We moved from St. Louis to the Houston area when I was about thirteen to follow my dad's job, and the four of us have been here ever since. Well, three of us, anyway. And this year it'll only be my mom and dad all by themselves.

I've been a pretty busy little girl these past few years, bouncing between school in the northern part of the state and my family's home in Katy, Texas. I'm currently enrolled in the Visual Communication program at Truman State University and hope to graduate in May of 2008.

Of all of my hobbies, drawing and photography are two of my most favorites. I always have a camera in my bag and a sketchbook near at hand. This means that sometimes, when boredom strikes, strange photos of myself will appear magically in the camera's memory card. Uh oh!

In particular, I love taking candid photographs and drawing quick, gestural sketches of the people around me. It doesn't matter where I am, though for some reason airports tend to have me sketching up a storm in no time; probably the fact that waiting for a plane is so dreadfully boring and there's such a huge variety of people sitting in the lounges around me.

In addition to my hobbies, during the summer I work for HEB (Howard E. Butt Grocer's) in Texas. I have been with the company since March 2004, though I only work in the summers now. There, I work as a cashier and assistant to the florist with intermittent periods in other departments. So far, I've worked in the Bakery, helped with a produce demo on organic vine-ripened tomatoes, and stocked the candy racks at the front of the store. It's never a dull day at HEB, let me tell you.

Another of my hobbies is actually sewing. I'm a total amateur but was inspired to learn by my love of Victorian and Lolita-styled garments. Lolita, the Japanese fashion and not the pornography revolving around "under aged" participants, is actually becoming quite a passion for me. The frills, lace, and abundance of all things feminine has had my head spinning for a few months and I am looking forward to being able to buy my first genuine outfit in the style soon.

Also, I love stockings, socks and shoes. In particular, I adore high heels and old-fashioned garter belts.
Finally, the last thing that you need to know is that I love what I do. I love to draw, I love to design, and right now I'm fighting to improve. So please, help me practice? :)