User:J. Michael Rowland

I majored in fine arts at Murray State University in western Kentucky, with an emphasis in art education, drawing and printmaking, specifically serigraph. Unofficially, I minored (undeclared) in English literature.

Leaving college without a degree, I traveled, worked odd jobs, held a position as an offset press operator, and ran my own silkscreen shop. I became interested in computers as a hobby. As they began to come of age in the graphic arts industry, my hobby interest gravitated toward professional interest, and I became an early adopter in the use of computers in graphic arts. I did volunteer work as editor of a local computer user group newsletter and writer of a monthly column about the early days of user access to the Internet. When the World Wide Web was introduced and the first web browsers became available, I was among a smaller group within the user group who taught each other HTML coding, and thus made the transition to Web publishing.

As a lifelong pattern, my hobby interests have fueled my career moves such that there is no clear-cut line separating the two. Longstanding interests include synergetics, geodesic spheres, tensegrity structures and the work of R. Buckminster Fuller. Within the next two years I plan to realize my goal of a self-built geodesic structure to live in.

I live on a weekend "hobby farm", pursuing vermiculture and orcharding, and promoting the propagation of heirloom food crops in small-scale agriculture.

I take photographs, I play piano and bass guitar, I ride a motorcycle, and I sail a 24-foot sailboat.