Barry Conner:  

Life Actually, I was born in Huntsville - in Ella Smither Geriatric Center, to be exact. Okay, back then the facility housed Huntsville Memorial Hospital, but things change. After attending "Kiddie Kollege Kindergarten", I served my time in Huntsville's public schools from first grade onward. (I never did time in our "public re-education system" - the one Huntsville has its main notariety for...) As a kid, I was pretty excited about school, but that changed around middle school or junior high. Often I just endured it, but there were some things I really did enjoy. I was a devoted member of various Wuensche bands, for instance. I didn't spend nearly the time practicing bari sax as I should have (my apologies, Mr. Wuensche), but we had fun and won a jillion first divisions! I took first-year Latin from Mrs. Kerr. I loved Mr. Brown's science classes, except for that zero on one of my final biology reports. (Yikes! That'll sure lower a GPA!) Nevertheless, I did get to start college a little early - began attending SHSU - Fine Arts major, English minor. Under duress, I took a break from school, and never quite got back around to it. (I've never felt like I had quite enough time or money to go back and finish my degree.) I experienced a really glorious spiritual transformation in 1984. Honestly! At that time, I put my trust completely in Jesus Christ, and my life has never been the same since. I soon began doing short-term missions work in Mexico, including earthquake relief after the big 1985 quake in Mexico City. Made several trips to Mexico - total time spent there close to a year. I returned to Huntsville and had a varied career as a starving artist. Eventually got a nice contract doing graphic design for a software company in Plano. That took the better part of a year, then I returned again to Huntsville. I was able to combine my computer and graphics interests by I beginning to work in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) & CAD-based mapping. Always very involved with family, friends, church. I'm an avid music & art aficionado, a computer geek, and a fan of anything outdoorsy. In addition to being an an artist and a musician (stylistically mostly blues/rock), I'm a writer, poet, songwriter, and singer. I've had people tell me that being artistically creative and also being such an analytical computer guy is an unusual thing. I'm really not impossible to pigeonhole intentionally, but I figure it's probably not a bad thing. Workplace I'm an artist, and I've made my living that way for most of my life. Not at the moment, but more on that later. You've heard the term "starving artist"? There is a reason for that... most of us are at one point or another. I prefer to sell works I've already completed, or those already in progress. That gives me the freedom, both artistica...Expand for more