What started out with Melinda mixing Playdough's primary colors as a child to create hundreds of unique hues turned into quite a creative journey. She has always been a dreamer and possesses a vibrant way of seeing the world. As a child, she enjoyed creating all kinds of art - painting, making collages and coloring.
Melinda was surrounded with love growing up and was taught you could do anything you set your mind to. She pursued the arts and graduated from Lamar University with a B.S. in graphic arts. While in college, she was A.S.I.D. student chapter president and was active in the art department. Her first design position was with a prestigious interior design firm in Central Florida, Marc-Michaels Interior Design.
From there, she and her good friend Pam Grimes founded and co-owned two gift design firms, Originality, Inc. and Persona Designs, Inc. For 12 years, the two entrepreneurs pushed the boundaries of gift giving, creating hundreds of unique and high-end designs for corporations, associations, VIPs and high level personalities. The design duo won several awards and were featured in numerous articles, one of which was the New York Times, Making Long-Distance Partnerships Work - The New York Times (nytimes.com).
Over the years, Melinda has worn many hats from entrepreneur, buyer, designer, program manager, photographer, stylist and social media pro. She has been active in her community and professional organizations and enjoyed going above and beyond with her unprecedented, themed parties. In addition, she has been a guest blogger on Today's Creative Life, Olga Furman Art and an array of her photos can be viewed on various platforms on the web. Her love of color and whimsy is reflected in much of her work. Two distinctive social media programs that Melinda created were Mugshot Monday and Buddy and Pals. Mugshot Monday featured Central Florida's local business professionals and bloggers in styled unique photo shoots, adorned in jewelry from an Orlando based jeweler. In 2015, Melinda adopted a little doxie pup named Buddy and once again she created a new platform called BuddyandPals #BuddysFFF, a weekly fun themed Instagram competition with judges and pets from all over the world.
Melinda then decided to switch gears and after 30 years went back to her roots of art, painting and yes, putting together puzzles! She goes where the spirit takes her - who knows what she will do next. She might just pick up a pack of Playdough and start creating new colors!