Why Is this website called "ArtHauntsMe?"
- L.C. (designer)
- Nov 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 13
Hello and thank you for stopping by our website. J.C. and I welcome all kinds of people. We look forward to possibly having you as our customer.
I’m sure some of you can relate to this story. I would love to read yours. Leave a comment below, if you would like to share. Thanks!
Anyway, story time. I started on the Internet pretty much from the day it was opened to the public. It was exciting and strange.
I began selling online about 1995. Could’ve been earlier. Not completely great at remembering the exact year, but it’s close enough. The first things I sold were Pokémon (before it was world famous) and computer parts.
Why arthauntsme? I began using that as my handle or nickname on message boards because growing up, I always felt that way. That art was haunting me.
I got in trouble at school a lot for drawing and daydreaming. Raised by a bit of a domineering mother, she was forever reminding me that art doesn’t pay. Ironic because she was a beautiful ballet dancer and choreographer. Quite artsy herself.
I tried pleasing her by doing other things, but art stalked me. In my sleep, at school, and later during my late nights in the Air Force.
After my military career, I went on to the IT world when it was very young and just getting started. My first computer was a Commodore 64 with Prodigy and Compuserve as the software that made the 64 more user friendly.
Next, I made the choice of still driving a beat up, old car but investing in an IBM 286 computer. I was - at that point in time - so in love with computers that I took out a loan to get one. Why an IBM when I had the choice of a Macintosh?
Two reasons, really. I stood in the store and saw the software for the IBM that was available and the software for the Mac. The IBM had way more software goodies to keep me busy.
The other reason was I had read in PC mag that the Mac was more a business tool and the PC was for software nerds and programmers. It also had Windows on it.
So, I had some experience with Windows 2.0 (no mouse, just chess and some version of notepad) in the military. So I went with what I knew. That turned out to be a great fit.
Anyway, in 1993 I began logging on to the Internet using a stupid program called Winsock. It created a socket (or port) to allow my computer to dial in to a big modem bank somewhere that a new thing called an ISP wanted to charge me to do. That piece of software never stayed connected, so you ended up listening all the time to the “screeeech” as the modem connected. I didn’t care. It was fun, anyway.
At the time, I was also working in IT, putting parts together to create workstations for my employer. Fast forward past quite a few of those jobs of networking, SQL databases, COBOL programming, blah blah blah.
I was so sure my Mom would be proud. Ha! She had no idea what I was up to. Nor did she have any chance to pay attention. Dealing with her own demons in alcohol addiction. It was a sad ending to a woman who could dance like an angel and teach others to do the same.
But I digress. While I fixed electronics on aircraft in the military and continued on with IT later, there was always this nagging in my gut that said, “Do art!” It was insistent, relentless.
At that point about 1999, I began drawing on my computer with a very small tablet. Took a ton of art classes online and offline. Bought so many books about art techniques, I still haven’t read them all.
I picked up painting in oils, acrylic, watercolors and started making sock dolls. I also picked up clay and started making things with that.
In 2007, I got my first iPhone and learned how to draw on that. I kept buying yet another stylus to draw with, and I decided to start a 365 drawings a day art challenge to push myself to get better. A lot of that art was pretty awful because the screen was so small. (It was an iPhone 4).
I progressed during that time to an iPad, then added Procreate software. Learned more about Photoshop because my knowledge of it was so limited. All I could do at first was resize a photo. Weeee! lol.
I began to watch hundreds of YouTube videos and learned Photoshop from a guy named Unmesh Dinda of Piximperfect and Chris Spooner of Spoongraphics. I owe both of them a debt of gratitude. They made me a better artist.
Later on, I finally met J.C. around 2015 after my spouse passed away young. We fell in love 😍, married in 2018, and began creating all kinds of websites together. He’s a very talented artist, and I love creating websites that make art sell, so here we are.
We decided this time to combine all the websites we’ve created together into one.
They are:
That’s the reason some store pages say they are continuing the tradition of… whatever website we had that sold those kinds of products.
I am also a network engineer and a Google certified cybersecurity analyst. I say that because I’ve learned all kinds of things and practice very strict cybersecurity here on arthauntsme.com . That is important for our customers and website visitors. Protecting you and your data matters a lot to us. We NEVER sell your data or collect it for any purpose except to notify you about an order and to process a payment you authorized.
I realized there are a lot of lazy things we Internet fans do that puts our businesses and our personal finances (and privacy) at risk. Like having passwords that don’t protect us. I’m planning to write more about cybersecurity and post things here that might keep you and those you love safe.
I mentioned it also because I take extreme measures that are necessary to keep pirates and content-scrapers (including A.I. servers) off of our website. This not only protects you if you decide you’d like to keep an account here (free to join) in order to save wishlists and track any orders you might have. It also protects any of our original artwork you might want to invest in. That makes your investment safe.
I’ll talk more about that later when time permits.
So, this is the end of this story. I hope you’ll become a customer and one of our friends. Contact us anytime you have a question. You’ll never have to talk to a bot on this website. I promise.
Peace and kindness…
~L.C.
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