LaGrave Designs

One of the more commonly asked questions is, “Where did you go to art school?”. My answer is always, “I didn't.”. This starts a whole new conversation…

I grew up in upstate New York, and graduated with a BS in Nutritional Sciences (after having spent my first 3 years in Neurobiology!) from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. I was hired by a software company in Ithaca that produced nutrition based software for dietary departments of healthcare institutions, mainly hospitals. There, I had the opportunity to learn about computer systems, and thus started my career as an IT specialist in the healthcare industry. From there, I moved on to the world of health insurance, and spent 10 years helping health insurance companies across the nation implement new computer systems for medical claims payment.

The next question I usually get is, “What inspired you to start doing this?”.

In December of 2008, I moved from NY to Seattle, Washington to take a permanent position with one of the companies that I had been consulting for. In September of 2010, we were informed that the company was closing and we were all being laid off over the next 9 months. After much soul searching, I decided that I was tired of the “corporate life” and that I wanted to do something more creative with my life, something that I was passionate about. I decided to start my own business. Having always been the “crafty” type, I played around with several ideas, including pre-made scrapbooks and handmade journals, until I discovered the kaleidoscope application purely by accident. After playing around with the application for a week or so, I knew I had found my niche.

Some of the reasons these kaleidoscope images appeal to me so much are my love of geometry, angles and symmetry. However, they are more than just beautiful abstract images. They offer a different perspective of actual places and things, to which people may have a strong connection.

I hope that you enjoy my images as much as I do. I love what I do, and hopefully that passion can be seen in my art.