I love designing.  Whether it is a vision for a birthday party, a idea for a special wedding invitation or the composition of a fine-art

still life, I was made for this stuff.  I find inspiration mostly from being in nature.  I love drawing the snarled branches of trees with blossoms or leaves blowing in the wind; I'm inspired by the red earth of the Utah desert with the first glimpse of golden sun;  I observe the way a wave rolls slowly and clear on a still day; I try to capture these moments with colored paper and glitter.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah with a mountaineer for a father and an artist for a mother.   One could say that my artistic nature comes from them.  My mother taught me how to look at the world as a resource.  She cut sunflowers along the roadside to paint, or gathered wild rose-hips for potpourri or dried yarrow for wreaths.  She taught me how to put thing

s together and make it art.  My father on the other hand, took me into the natural world.  We spent winter afternoons on the ski slopes of Alta, Utah and summer  mornings watching Elk eat lupine in the meadows of the Teton National Park.  I combine these elements and create. 

I moved from Salt Lake City, Utah in 1999 to Los Angeles where I currently live.  I began taking fine art lessons from Katie O'Neill at O'Neill's fine art studio in Malibu.  Katie taught me how to put some structure to what I saw.  She taught me how to draw and paint like an artist.  It's unbelievable what one can learn with a little determination.  Thank you, thank you  Katie and Virginia O'Neill!!! I am sooo appreciative for teaching me how to be an artist!  If you'd like to see my paintings, click here.

I currently live in Venice Beach, California with my husband Gibran and our two girls, Cassidy and Josephine. 

                                                                                Thanks for looking!  -Jessica Begum