Let me say first, I am not only flattered to be asked to be Member of the Month, but also humbled by the preceding esteemed Members of the Month "gallery". I have had a wonderful/horrible, rewarding/frustrating, and especially growth oriented relationship with my love for "art in print" for the majority of my life. A little personal background�

I was born in St. Louis, MO (you, know — the "show me" state) in the month of September, which makes me a Virgo (a "nitpicker" perfectionist), quite some years ago. My father emigrated from the Ukraine when he was five years old, along with his four sisters. My grandfather was a choir master in the Russian Orthodox Church in New England. Needless to say, music and its appreciation in any form was their legacy for me. My father subsequently became an engineer and worked in the aviation industry for his entire life. My mother was a native Pennsylvanian from the little coal-mining town of Shamokin and an only child. Her German ancestry, stubbornness and tenacity, contributed greatly to my lifelong desire to "do more".

By the age of ten, I moved to Pennsylvania with my family. During my early years, I trained in classical piano and voice, and I greatly enjoyed drawing and sketching, but without any formal training, it remained recreational only. During my first job in printing, these things became my most valuable assets.

I was hired as a typesetter for a company that primarily printed 13 editions of TV Guide, Chilton automobile repair and parts manuals, and Modern Romance magazines. I operated a "mechanical keyboard", of which the name now escapes me, which perforated a 6-channel tape where each line needed to be accurately justified according to the typeface being used at the time. These tapes were then run through an automatic linotype machine which used hot, molten lead to set up lines of type, which was ultimately processed over and over (until it was "done right"). And then acetates were made to send to New York City where the actual printing was completed. The music background perpetuated the "beat" of my keystroking, and the perfectionism (or lack of) could mean the difference between flowing galleys of type (on schedule — inked proofs) or the height of disaster — an inaccurately justified line that squirted hot, molten lead out onto to the floor. Time lost to clean up the mess and start over could be very costly.

This "primitive" background has given me a lifetime of continued insight into the evolution of print as it occurred for me, into today's techniques and products. It has given me a priceless education and essential understanding of the mechanics that gets an idea onto paper � and now, into "thin air" — the Internet.

As my employment changed, my experiences progressed to more sophisticated methods of printing. It included a system developed by a company called Quadex which powered a Unisetter. The Unisetter used sleeves of negatives which were prints of individual letters of the fonts which were "photographed" onto photo sensitive paper by an internal light source. The type size was determined by the distance of the lens from the paper when it was exposed. After being developed, it would be cut into galleys and provided to the paste-up artists who prepared the mechanicals. If the sleeve was not "seated" properly, the "baselines" of the type were all "wobbly", the material had to be thrown away and re-run after correcting the negative's position in the Unisetter.

For one large center city insurance corporation, I set up and managed an "in-house" pre-press facility, which serviced most of the underwriting departments for their manuals and legal forms. I created a translation program for the IBM5520 PC word processing computers to our in-house pre-press computers. Files were directly interfaced between the two departments using a local access network (LAN) and automatically formatted for a Compugraphic "digitized typesetter" using a laser beam, in this case, which actually drew the characters to expose the photographic paper.

On to a periodical and book publishing firm; and onward to the Mac. With my "little bitty" happy face screen on my early-model Mac; a program called Ready, Set, Go; a hard drive, and RAM the size of a peanut, I learned the intricacies and challenges of complete page layout. Created desktop publishing files, with "black holes" (for placement of halftoned pictures), went directly from the Mac to imagesetter negatives as pages. Costs of negative materials on a roll were extremely high, especially if there was any degree of inaccuracy which led to waste. I was very fortunate to work with a highly skilled stripping department, and some exceptional pressmen. Together, with their expertise, I learned about critical camerawork, as well as paper and press limitations with regard to ink coverage and registration for multi-colored production. I owe much gratitude to my then employer, who had the foresight to be on the "cutting edge" of the technology for that day.

Today, I happily work with my dual G4 and Snow iMac G3. As a freelance graphic artist for the past five years, my clients require, and benefit, from all my progressive experiences. Today I work with professional photographers who work in both traditional and digital methods. My work requires me to handle photographic collages with special effects, photo reconstruction, color correction, and scanning. I've created various logos for local businesses. I also work with magazines to design color ads, and digital pagination for periodicals. I have produced color catalogues, textbooks for studies in the health sciences field, and many more diversified print collateral and products for business. My production programs of choice are QuarkXPress, Photoshop, and Illustrator (all presently being used in System 9. For me, I believe "if it's not broke, don't fix it"). I look forward, however, to increasing my usage and experimentation with System 10 capabilities in the near future.

Along with my love for graphic arts and the Macintosh, I share my life today with my blended family. My husband, Joe, and I have five adult children who have blessed us with five beautiful grandchildren ranging in age from 18 months to 21 years. My love for music and art has been passed to the new generation. Today, however, I exercise 100% of my energy in the "appreciation department." All of our grandkids have talents in one or the other, but especially our 12 year old granddaughter who sings like an angel and is an accomplished musician on piano and viola. I also love to cook. It not only meets my dietary needs, but trying new recipes is always a surprise, and with not too many failures, they're all edible.

Now that I have had some more manageable time working for myself, I've enjoyed several wonderful trips: Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Blue Ridge Mountains, Florida's Sanibel and Captiva Islands, the rugged and breathtaking sights of the Yukon territory in Alaska and Canada, and most recently a western Caribbean cruise including the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan Peninsula and all the spectacular sights in between. With all the photos I have taken and not having a digital camera yet, I have much scanning and archiving to do.

I owe many thanks to the people I have met at MLMUG who have extended their knowledge, as well as their friendship to me since becoming a member four years ago. I look forward to the future of print and my continuing relationship with it.

—Susan Sheridan