The  Visual  Translator

Janet Marie McPhatter is a graduate from the University of Denver with a Graduate Certificate in Web Development and a graduate from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design with a Master's degree in Education, Leadership and Emerging Technologies. She is also a graduate from Westwood College with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications and earned an Associates degree in Digital Design from Stratford University.

 

Janet obtained her technical skills when she graduated from Maryland Drafting Institute for Electro-mechanical Drafting. She graduated from Montgomery College and received certification by the college, The Department of Labor, The Department of the Army, and Army Research Laboratory for Machinist Technology.

 

Janet is a trained graphic designer, technical illustrator and draftsperson with a solid experience underpinned by her passion for expressing her creativity. She has been employed by the Federal Government and on many contracts for the private sector.

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I do what I do because of something deep within want to create and express things that are visual in my mind. I enjoy making visuals come to life on most any kind of media. I also enjoy expressing ideas and notions visually for others. The most compensation I get from creating is a smile and to hear them say, “That’s it” or “This is what I’m looking for”. That’s worth more to me than gold or even money.

 

Art stimulates and excites my senses. I get so many emotions from creating. Depending on the subject matter, I sense happiness, especially if its colorful, sadness, eeriness, anger, romance, peace, laughter and even hunger.

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My inspiration just comes and grabs me. An idea would come to me and I must turn it into reality. I can remember at the age of eight years old, well, I always loved coloring and had many of coloring books. This particular day, I was looking at my Disney, The Aristocats coloring book and listing to the sound track of the movie.

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Looking at the characters, I thought to myself, I can draw these characters and that’s what I did. At first it seemed a bit of a challenge but I chugged my way through each character. Finally I completed my sketches. They were a bit crude by my mom, aunt and cousin thought they were great. They were and are such an inspiration to me. From the expressions they conveyed in viewing my work, gave me the fuel to do more and more if no more than to see the expressions and gestures from them.

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By the time I was between 11 and 13 I began venturing out using different media like acrylics, watercolors, chalk pastels, color pencils and markers. I explored different subjects and techniques. I think the most difficult and challenging to do is the human body and the human face—both you would think are very simple but so complex.

 

College is where I really had the opportunity to be truly challenged and push my brain to the limit with such a variety of scenarios and problems to solve using even more different media. This was such a high. Here is where I also learned about the masters of the past and present. My favorites are Botticelli, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Salvador Dali.

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