Raised most of my life in New Mexico, I moved to Northern California in 1997. My friends don't call me a Californian, they say I'm a New Mexican living in California. I think that's true. For about two years after moving, I distanced myself from my home state thinking it backward and remote. Then I began to visit home more frequently and truly learned to love my home state only by gaining perspective. I'm a writer, a painter, a photographer and labor at a "real job" during the days.