Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nancy Cato, born and raised in New Haven, CT and I looooove to draw. Most of my childhood was spent doodling and tracing comic strips. I remember coming across an ad in the TV Guide offering an art scholarship to anyone who could draw Tippy the Turtle. Well I drew Tippy the turtle and promptly received an application to the Minneapolis School of Art. Little did I know that anyone with a stamp and envelope received an application to this all inclusive school of art. Okay, so that was the early years.

My next glorified contact with an art school was my senior year visit to the Philadelphia College of Art. Hot Diggity Dog!...that was my idea of college!!...miles and miles away from home ....art classes all day, everyday...living off-campus in a big city...URRRRRRRRT!!..Put your brakes on!! My parents put an end to all that willy nilly-bohemian-dinky-doodling art school idea of mine and promptly introduced me to the wonderful world of Liberal Arts.

I begrudgingly attended Western Connecticut State University, majoring in graphic design and illustration. I had a love hate relationship with WCSU---I loved the art program and hated everything else. To this day, I am very thankful to my illustration teacher at Westconn, Abe Echevarria. He was and continues to be an instrumental part of my growth as an artist. Not bad for Liberal Arts.

After college, I moved to San Francisco with hopes of designing t-shirts for the warm climate that did not exist. I couldn't believe how cold it was here. Needless to say, those flighty art dreams were ditched when the rent was due.

For the next five years, I was a bike messenger. All creative urges were put on hold and replaced with a huge void in my life. Sloooooooooowly, I began to take artisitc requests from freinds and the void filled back up. At the end of the five years of messengering, I decided to invest more time with my art , so I started Cato Creations....and the beat goes on.