POLYSKILLABIC: Sacramento artist Lily Toppenberg has been involved in art of some type all of her life. She began making art in public as a pre-schooler, drawing pictures of horses for the amusement of the customers in her parents' restaurant at Cottonwood Corners in southern California.

After studying art at the California College of Arts and Crafts, she began her commercial art career in 1977 as a graphic designer and illustrator, then segued into film production doing camera graphics, story boards, and, along the way, picking up innumerable skills in many mediums while making props, models and film sets.

She has received many awards for her efforts, including an Emmy,  two Clios, the Communication Arts Magazine Award of Excellence and has been honored by the Sacramento Advertising Club countless times. At present, she divides her time between computer graphics* and painting commercial and residential murals, magically transforming rooms into environments.

It turns out, the same day, the whales started their journey back to the ocean. Stefanie and her family chased the whales down the river, and waited near Rio Vista all day, but Delta and Dawn didn’t show up.

Stefanie has worked at TV stations around the country for more than a decade.  Before coming home to Northern California, Stefanie worked in Hartford, Connecticut. She also worked for a TV station in the Quad Cities, where she met her husband. Stefanie got her start the small border town of Yuma, Arizona.

Stefanie lives in Sacramento with her husband and son.

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