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I have had a strong interest in the art field since about the time I could hold a pencil to draw. It has been a life long passion that has lead me to where I am today. Over the years I have honed my skills in various parts of the artistic field and only fueled the fire more.

Fine Art
I have had a lot of encouragement through the years that has helped given me the inspiration to continue on. In the Boy Scouts, I earned just about every merit badge dealing with artistic design. I was troop artist for several years creating signs, displays, and repainting the troop rock at Scout Camp. In middle school I was invited and accepted into the GATS (Gifted and Talented Students) art class. In high school I continued down the path taking every art class available and participating in many shows and competitions. I also did a lot of extracurricular activities such as painting windows for a Toys For Tots collection point, painting a S.A.D.D. (Students Against Drunk Driving) billboard, painting a barn built to look like a dragon with several other people, and painting a giant mural in one of the local grade schools with my now wife. I was also president of the Art Club, earned the most Art Letters in my high school's history and was Senior Artist of the Year.

Graphic Design
As I wrapped up my high school years, it was time to look into colleges and Central Missouri State University had one of the strongest art programs in the country. During my time in college I took almost every art class available and was introduced to digital art and the commercial art side of life. In 2000 I earned my degree in Commercial Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design. I was also a member of the Honors College that required extra coursework and a final honors project where I created a very successful website telling the Art History of Missouri.

Shortly after earning my degree I started work full time at The Gerson Companies where I worked for just short of 13 years. While there, I created countless catalogs, brochures, promotional sheets, packages, illustrations, and more. I travelled to Hong Kong several times to design, lay out, and oversee photography for their largest catalog as Art Director. Back home, I transitioned from being full time graphic designer to being part time graphic designer / part time photographer, and then to full time photographer with graphic design on the side. I made so many friends and had so many great experiences in my years there. However, when my second child was born I was needed more at home and I became a stay-at-home dad and have been able to devote more of my time to Paul Conner Studios.

Photography
In my free time I have always loved photography. Becoming a full time photographer helped me hone my skills with a camera and introduced me to vast number of things that I didn't know a camera could do. A couple of years before I had left The Gerson Companies I started making prints and doing a few art shows here and there as my schedule would allow. The photos went over great and were a lot of fun to do. On our family vacations I went from taking 40 or 50 pictures to taking thousands of photos. Of course that wouldn't be possible without the invention of digital photography. I would need several duffel bags full of film for every trip and thousands of dallars to process them all. We have always loved the outdoors and nature's beauty and it really shows in the majority of my photography. We have visited some of the most beautiful places in America and I have attempted to capture a small bit of the wonder at these places. I am now booking a lot more shows and having a blast. I will be keeping a list of shows I will be at to the right.

Elongated Coins
Where did the odd field of Elongated Coin design come in? On the side I have a small travelling Boy Scout museum that is currently on hiatus. While it was more active, however, I was always in search of new items to add to it. One of the items I had in my museum was an elongated penny that I had rolled during the 1993 National Scout Jamboree. I wanted to see if there were other Scout related pennies like this and did a bit of searching. That is when I discovered the vast world of Elongated Coins. A few years before the Jamboree I had gotten a couple from the Missouri State Fair. I thought they were neat, but didn't know there was an entire world of them. I started collecting these coins more and joined TEC (The Elongated Collector) where I was able to network, find these machines, and trade with other collectors. At the first Penny Meet I attented to meet some of these other collectors, I was asked by Tyler Tyson if I could design a coin for him. I said that sounded like a lot of fun and agreed to do that. After a little bit of education of what it took to design an elongated coin I got the design process just right and my first design was born. From there the designs just took off from word of mouth and I found a whole new creative outlet.

Today I have a wide range of skills and products available. If you are looking for business cards, logo designs, or even a website, I can help with that. If you are looking for some beautiful photos to help brighten up a room, I can help with that. If you are wanting an elongated coin to help celebrate one of life's events, I can help with that. Take some time to look through my site to see if there is anything I can do for you. I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
Paul Conner

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