Not many people can identify an exact turning point in their lives. However, Des Moines native Jolene Schultz can give you the exact answer:

“When I was 16, I was in a bad car accident,” she said. “I almost died and had a lot of surgeries. I had a brain injury, so I don’t remember too much from that time, but I know that it started me on the path I am now.”

She discovered that there’s nothing like a near-death experience to get you to re-evaluate your life plans. “I came out of it thinking I wanted to do something I love with my life,” she said. “After my car accident, I got a scholarship from my high school art teachers and was voted most likely to succeed in art, so I decided I should probably go to art school.”

Jolene enrolled in the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she was featured in several magazines as an up-and-coming illustrator and honored by the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, Jolene has been creating as much as she can.

She has a day job as an art director at a marketing agency in Des Moines, Iowa and runs her art and illustration business on the side. She also enjoys making weird little short films with her friends in a film-making group called Tiny Explosions.

Even though the car accident gave her life a literal jolt, Jolene is happy with where it sent her. She says, “It may have taken me on a unique path, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”