Finding my happy place at the intersection of fine art, advertising, and web site design.
Simone began her professional career in 1981 at Ogilvy & Mather, a Chicago-based advertising agency. She left the agency in 1991 in order to learn more about computer generated production and design. During the 1990s Simone worked at Spiegel, Inc. as an electronic production assistant, then later as assistant art director. In 1998 she opened her own own print and web design business. She currently works with more than 25 small businesses and organizations, providing them with professional, contemporary advertising and design.
Simone was instrumental in the development of Chicago’s alternative arts scene in the mid 80s. She opened the Wholesome Roc Gallery in Chicago in 1986, exhibiting her works as well as works by other local and emerging artists. The gallery was open in the evenings from 7 p.m. until midnight, attracting large numbers of folks interested in the art, poetry readings, and other events the gallery hosted. Although that space closed in 1991, Simone continued to make and display art.
As a self-taught artist creating portraits in oil pastels, she exhibited works from her “One World” series in several Chicago galleries and museums. Her works have been reprinted in various journals, newspapers, and magazines all across the United States. From 1989-1994 Simone published, edited, and designed the Planet Roc Alternative Arts Journal, the newsletter of the Wholesome Roc Gallery, Museum & Cafe. Beginning in 1995 Simone began creating and exhibiting handmade kites.
From 2001-2016 Simone lived on a farm in rural North Carolina where she learned how to live sustainably, growing fruits and vegetables. Now living in Florida, Simone has returned to her love of kites, creating fanciful paper kites from handmade papers. In 2020 she exhibited several kites at Studio 620 in Tampa, Florida.
Simone is currently the designer of The Urban News magazine, published out of Asheville, NC since 2006, and the chief architect for the House of Thing, launched in 2022 as a continuation of THING magazine, a Black gay zine published from 1989 to 1993. House of Thing is a platform for Black LGBTQ+ arts and culture, and a safe space to identify and discover one’s own fabulousness.
“I find great joy in combining the curves and fluidity of art, with the straight lines and distinct messages of commercial art. To that extent, I am always looking for new ways to apply my comprehensive computer skills and love of fine art to the design, organization, and production of contemporary, exciting advertising and websites for small businesses and organizations.”