This particular story starts out in 1965. The days of malt shops and poodle skirts were still fairly in fashion but to Linda Nielson, the only thing - or rather, person - that actually mattered was Carter McFinley. He was the new kid in the town of Savannah, Georgia and in all honesty, he was of the frail and pale variety - but to Linda, he was beautiful. To anyone within hearing range, she claimed that one day, she was going to marry that kid. Being that Linda and Carter were only seven at the time, her declaration was met with quite a few smiles and plenty of chuckles - especially from adults. The years went by; nine years down the road just weeks before the high school homecoming dance, Carter McFinley surprised everyone by asking Linda to be his date for the event. It was rumored that Linda bullied him into asking her (because everyone knew she was sweet on him) as it turned out, Carter merely took a chance and finally stopped being shy. No one was more thrilled than Linda herself. After all the years of virtually wooing the McFinley kid, he'd finally come to his senses and realized they were meant to be together.

It was obvious, after all.

They dated seriously after homecoming; epitomizing the phrase 'high school sweethearts'. They were inseparable; and had even gone on to the same college together in the end. Everyone knew they were going to get married; you didn't see a devoted couple like them very often anymore. When they turned 20 in 1978, no one was really quite surprised when Carter and Linda got engaged for all of six months before their families threw them a large, lavish wedding. It was perfect; it had all the bells and whistles that a wedding ought to have. But in spite of all the glamour and the fancy decorations, all Linda and Carter wanted was to marry the other and move on with the lives. Together. Although there had been a lot of comments about how young they were, the couple knew that it didn't matter whether they got married now or later - they were ready to start the rest of their lives side by side; and damn anyone who tried to get in their way. The first year of their marriage was hard; as most marriages that were starting off tended to be. They were both still in college - and they wanted to continue with their education so the McFinley's decided that they would move into Carter's parents' home for the time being. Although Linda had her initial worries about how she would fare beneath her in-law's roof, the situation worked out for her. She got along just fine with Carter's parents and when they both finally graduated college, they were presented with the deed to their new home. A place that Carter's father - who was an architect at that time - had actually designed and built with his son and his daughter-in-law in mind.

Everything was perfect.

Neither one knew how many kids they were going to have; neither one knew how many they wanted to have, but when Jackson Brian was born and was later on followed by Audrey Elizabeth, they found that it didn't matter how many kids they produced; each one was a blessing. Linda was twenty-six when Jackson was born. He appeared in late April in 1982 at three twenty-seven in the morning. He was a fat little bundle with the happiest disposition they'd ever seen on an infant. Growing up, Jack was an incredibly active little guy. He'd track grass and mud through the house during the summers and when Winter came along, there were a thousand little puddles around their home - all derived from the snow that was melting off of him the longer he stayed inside. He got into trouble more times than he cared to admit, but he was a kid and it was normal. Broken windows, trampled gardens? Normal things.

Despite the perfect little bubble that Jack had found himself in, it wasn't long before his world came to a shuddering stop. The night his parents died, Jack had spent countless hours protesting his bedtime. He didn't want to go to bed. He wanted to stay up and watch just five more minutes of TV. He was hungry, he needed a snack before he went to bed. He needed to use the bathroom. He thought he heard his two-year old sister calling out for him from her bedroom. The list of excuses was endless and by the time he'd been wrestled into bed, his parents were almost late for the dinner reservations they'd made in town. The next morning, Jack's world had shifted upside down. Naturally, being at six, he didn't quite understand what was going on around him. All he knew was this parents were gone and they were going to come back.The next few weeks flew by in a blue. Jack and Audrey were packed and sent to live in Boston with their Grandma Penny after the funeral and despite the aching hole that his parents' death had left behind, Jack struggled valiantly to move on with his life the best way he knew how.

High school. Now, Jack enjoyed high school. To this day, there isn't a single thing about his teenage years that he could say was awful. He didn't particularly receive the bestgrades or anything; but he tried his best, earned some decent A's and B's, and the teachers responded really well to his efforts. He had many friends and couldn't walk through the hallways without at least one person calling out his name to say hello and the girls ... there were a lot of girls. Pretty girls. He'd never been the type to bounce from one girl to another - in all honesty, Jack didn't date anyone for that reason alone. He always had a date for school events, but they were always just friends and they always remained that way. Around this time, Jack discovered what he wanted to do with his life; a passion so surprising and unexpected that he's still not quite sure how the hell it even started. Jack had always been good with computers; he knew the odds and ends of the workings of one, but it wasn't until a computer class lesson with Mr. Vu during junior year that Jack realized he had quite a knack for designing. He'd always been good at drawing by hand - but by computer? That was new.

When Jack graduated high school in 2000, he found out that while he hated saying goodbye to his friends and those he'd come to know over the past four years of high school, it wasn't particularly hard. Everyone was going their separate ways; most of them branching out and moving out of state. Jack was no exception. Upon getting his acceptance, Jack moved west. Seattle was an easy answer for him. City University of Seattle had accepted his application into their school system and soon after graduation, Jack found himself wandering throughout the city, soaking in the sights and learning his way around before school actually started. What he wanted to do was an easy enough choice. About mid-way through his education, Jack recieved news from back home that his Grandma Penny had died. Audrey was still in high school and Jack made the immediate decision to return briefly to Boston to handle matters and more importantly, to make sure his sister was holding up okay. Despite his grief, he managed to push it aside long enough to handle the funeral arrangements and the meetings with their grandmother's lawyer to see what she'd left for them in her will.

The amount of money that had been willed to both grandchildren had been a shock and Jack took the opportunity to split everything half between him and Audrey. Jack took a few jobs here and there in the city to keep himself busy despite knowing that with the money their grandmother had left them, he had no need to work for a living anymore - and when Audrey graduated high school they sold their grandmother's house and the belongings they felt didn't hold any personal significance. When she left for college, Jack returned to Seattle to finish the rest of his education. When he finally graduated university, Jack was sporting himself a shiny bachelor's degree in Industrial Art with an emphasis on Visual Communication. He also became a member of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) which opened a lot of doors that weren't available before.

He did a few jobs here and there around the city once more to build a repertoire; he even helped a friend open up a graphic designs business where Jack worked on a lot of photo retouching and color correcting. While his friend tackled some design projects for clients, Jack helped others create websites and other promotional materials. It wasn't until he created a couple's wedding invitations that he'd gotten a phone call from one of the guests at the aforementioned wedding. Someone had taken the time to note his design on the invite and wanted to know more about him. It turned out that Brian Wiener was the Chairman of 360i, a highly popular ad agency based in New York City. He liked what he saw with Jack's work and asked if he wanted to work for 360i. Jack gave a resounding 'yes' and packed his bags for NYC. Jack appeared on New York's streets in early 2015 - just weeks shy of his 33th birthday. A lot of his work can be found on billboards, on the sides of buses, on the flashing screens in Times Square and notably, between pages in well-known magazines. Vogue, Glamour, Cosmo - to name a few.

These days, Jack can be seen wandering through the streets of Manhattan with a camera in hand. He gets his inspiration from the streets, from the scenery, from the stories behind the noise - but mostly, from the people that walk around him on a daily basis. It may not have been the doctor or lawyer job that his parents had envisioned for him when he was much younger, but he loves what he does and he's damn good at it and as long as Jack enjoyed his art almost as much as anyone else enjoyed seeing it, then that was all that mattered.

legal full name Jackson Brian McFinley date of birth & age April 29, 1982 ; 33 place of birth Savannah, Georgia currently resides Irvington, New York occupation Production Artist for 360i and various ad agencies in the city. relationship status Single