ART PREDATOR aka Gwendolyn Alley

Hey there fellow candidates, Reef Enthusiasts, and Tourism Queensland!

I'm Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator and I love blogging and adventuring and blogging about adventuring and just plain blogging!

That's a photo of me and my WordPress tattoo from WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco 2008.

My official video is here or you can watch it on YouTube:
here:

Why do I want the BEST JOB in the world as caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef? Why do I think I'm the BEST ONE for the job?

According to Queensland Tourism, the job entails reporting on various adventures to Tourism Queensland headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video updates and ongoing media interviews. The successful applicant should posses:
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills
- Good written and verbal English skills
- An adventurous attitude
- Willingness to try new things
- A passion for the outdoors
- Good swimming skills and enthusiasm for snorkelling and/or diving
- Ability to engage with others
- At least one year’s relevant experience

I'm a writer, blogger, multi-media journalist, poet, artist, adventurer, and college teacher. I wrote a bi-monthly column about the arts and my adventures in the world for three years which developed into my Art Predator blog which enjoys a global readership averaging over 300 page views a day this month and covering a wide range of intellectual, artistic, and hedonistic pursuits from wine to poetry to politics to travel. I was a regularly featured guest on talk radio for three years, and continue to do radio and TV interviews. In high school, I edited the school paper and had my own TV show!

I love learning! My undergraduate college degrees from UC Santa Cruz are in Environmental Studies and Literature/Creative Writing. My graduate degrees are in Education and English, plus I have a number of graduate credits in ecology. In fact, I have 111 post BA semester credits in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities--enough for a Ph.D!

Here I am performing poetry at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada.

In addition to many years experience teaching classes in Environmental Studies, English and Education full and part-time for community colleges, UC, and Cal State U, I've taught yoga, mountaineering, swing dancing, poetry workshops, and volunteered as a docent for California State Parks. My poetry has appeared in anthologies and journals, I've edited an anthology, and I've produced 3 dozen broadsides combining my poetry and art which were published in ARTLIFE Limited Editions. I'm listed in Poets & Writers, hosted a poetry series for 5 years, competed as a slam poet, and have been a featured reader throughout California, in Nevada, Washington, New Mexico and on the web.

Yes, another Burning Man picture--that's a zoetrope; I'm wearing the leather fringe jacket and the boy in the turquoise reef shirt is my son who's trying to make the zpetrope move by pedaling a bike. You can learn more about the zoetrope and Burning Man on my Art Predator blog.

My first memories are of the outdoors: the gritty sand at the beach between my toes, the cool cave of mud under our house, climbing all trees in sight, discovering where trails lead me. I joined Girl Scouts to develop outdoor skills and learned through Scouts how to rock climb, backpack, and sail when I was 12.

Since then, I've
* backpacked 2800 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail
* technical climbed throughout the Western United States,
* led non-technical peak ascents in Colorado,
* summitted Mt Whitney and the Grant Teton
* hooted for spotted owls for the US Forest Service in the Sierra,
* served as a hack site attendant for peregrine falcons near San Diego,
* searched for nesting goshawks around Lake Tahoe,
* traveled thousands of miles exploring the Western US and Baja Mexico in my VW Westfalia campervan
* skiied expert terrain in Utah, Colorado, and California
* hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru
plus I'm a great swimmer who snorkels, kayaks, canoes, white water rafts, surfs and rides a bike daily as a main source of transportation!

I'm always up for an adventure!

And so is my husband and son. Marshall is an avid snorkeler and world traveler, and he's excited about finally sharing with me one of his passions--scuba diving! (Around here I complain the water's too cold!)

To learn more about me (and my monkeys!), please visit my blog: http://artpredator.wordpress.com

Looking forward to learning more about YOU!

best, gwendolyn alley aka art predator