The day her father carried the smoking TV out the door for the last time was the day Lorraine Devon Wilke unknowingly embarked upon her life as an artist. Once the kicking and screaming stopped and the dulling noise of canned laughter receded, she and her 10 brothers and sisters found their vivid imaginations - and the world at large - to be a very colorful and creative place. The record player now accompanied every waking moment, whether her mother’s Perry Como, her brothers’ James Gang, or the Beatles, Joni, and CSN she and her sisters devoured. Her father took them to musicals, her mother created worlds with backyard carnivals and hand-made dolls; her brothers and sisters painted, wrote outrageous basement shows, picked up guitars and sang until there wasn’t a stage they could step on and not set the room on fire. That was the truest, most cherished legacy of her family life...artistic spirit. From there she pounced into her own version of consummate creativity: a theater major at the University of Illinois, she learned stage acting and script writing and spent most of her sophomore year traveling with Head of State, an award-winning original musical that took her and her cast mates to the Kennedy Center. The pounding exhilaration of live performance piqued her interest in recording and performing with bands, a passion that ironically compelled her early departure from school when the one that wooed her onto the road became too great an adventure to ignore. Dreams and westward bookings landed her in Los Angeles, where she decided to embrace the fabled city of movies and grand destinies by trying her luck as an actor. For 5 years she studied with Robert F. Lyons, a protégé of famed acting guru, Milton Katselas, and while she honed her skills, learned how to teach the craft (and ran several beginners acting workshops), performed in countless plays, landed some TV and film roles, and enthusiastically pounded the pavement along with the best of them, the siren song of music sweet music was always a seductive pull. She launched back into full-time rock and roll in the 80’s (see Music Page), but continued to keep her feet firmly planted on all sides of her creative road. When she and filmmaker, Patricia Royce, sat around her apartment talking long and hilariously enough to come up with a timely, clever screenplay based on their tumultuous 30-something lives, the result was To Cross the Rubicon, a 1.7 million dollar feature produced in the early 90’s by the Lensman Company out of Seattle, directed by Barry Caillier, which went on to win awards on the festival circuit, had a short but successful domestic run, and was released in the late-90’s on DVD and video. The film starred acclaimed singer/songwriter, J.D. Souther, and featured one of her favorite performers, David Crosby, in a small but memorable cameo. Co-starring as a prodigal rock and roll singer attempting to find balance between dreams, reality and men who’ll commit, Lorraine co-wrote and recorded several of the songs on the soundtrack, one of which she performed as her character, winning accolades in her hyphenated role. (see Film Page for reviews.) Life took another unexpected but profound turn when she and the Lensman Company’s attorney, Pete Wilke, met and were married before the film was even edited, an event that heralded the most creative and fertile period of her life. Son, Dillon, followed and after living a life of travel and passionate pursuit, Lorraine took some time to breathe, revel in family, write a bevy of new songs and screenplays (see Writing Page), as well as develop her left-brain skills working as a management and development consultant in a variety of business arenas. Small theater and indie films were also her playground for much of this period, but as always, music came calling. By the mid-2000's she's immersed herself once again in band life with ROAD TO BLUE (see Music Page) culminating in the eventual recording of her first full-length CD, Somewhere On the Way (see CD Page), a well-reviewed collection of soulful roots/rock originals written, arranged and produced by Lorraine and her partner, guitarist Rick M. Hirsch. While continuing to work in the music industry, she also wrote and directed projects both creative and industrial, developing her expanding skills as a photographer and photo restorer. (see Photography Page). Most recently, Lorraine has embarked upon a transitional period in her work and business life (see Business Page), exploring a number of entrepreneurial and creative endeavors that utilize her considerable business skills. Additionally, he has recently completed her first novel, The Pros and Cons of Neighbors, and a feature screenplay of hers, The Theory of Almost Everything, is currently under option with Los Angeles film production company, Gabriel Entertainment Group. She has recently launched her blog Rock+Paper+Music, a forum in which she'll explore art, opinion and observation from her unqiue and unconventional perspective. Continuing her world travels whenever possible, pen and camera always in hand, she experiences her greatest joy in life with her family, where all things heartfelt and inspirational are found.