ESTEFANIA “STEF” MORAN

I was born smack dab in the middle of the small country of Ecuador. Lived my earliest years in a gated community in Quito, the capital city. When I was just shy of turning five, my parents decided to move to my mother’s hometown out in the boonies of Kentucky. Once a mountain girl, always a mountain girl.

I always had a deep connection with the arts growing up. Back in high school, I had the superlative “Artsy Annie”. No one knew what the heck my name was but they sure knew I could draw! Alongside drawing stuff I also played guitar in a band for quite some time. Music became a big deal early on as my dad would take me to his rehearsals so I could watch them jam to some Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. Add video games to the mix and now you got a person who has too many hobbies and not enough time.

I graduated from Morehead State University back in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Throughout college, I did contract work with companies while helping out my musician friends on artwork for their up-and-coming EP releases. Didn’t really make much of a killing off my work back then, but I managed to become more familiar with my own downfalls as an artist. This gave me the opportunity to tackle them head-on. As mamaw would say, if you ain’t learnin you ain’t livin.

As I was building my portfolio throughout the years, I finally landed an in-house position (five minutes away from my apartment no less!!). During my time at Willow Hill Supply, I’ve started working part-time in production, to becoming the Team Lead of the printing department after my first year working there. I am now responsible for generating marketing material for the company, supervising the production of all of our printed goods, as well as directly communicating with customers on designs old and new.

Growth is a lifelong journey. Without it, how in the heck would have I known to NOT add the glaze to my vegan meatloaf before baking it? I am confident enough in my abilities to get out there and lend a helping hand in all things art and design. But life is also here to lend a helping hand to me in return.

Art is my meatloaf. It’s good to eat now, but how can I make it taste better?