A year ago, Cat Palmer quit her day job and leapt off the proverbial cliff by becoming a full-time photographer. It was something she had often considered, but she credits her baby boy, Jack, as the catalyst to give her the strength to pursue the dream.

"I always knew when I had children that I would want to be at home. Some people call it old-fashioned, but I didn't have it so I wanted it to basically provide the things that I never had," Palmer says with a shrug.

Her dreams of being an artist probably didn't consist of an endless string of wedding engagements and boys in baseball uniforms while her own creative projects are asked to wait in the wings, but she has come to accept the sacrifice.

"I realize I have to do that stuff in order to purchase my prints, my metals and my paint supplies. So, in spring and fall I make a living by doing weddings, portraits and little league baseball. During the summer I make it as an artist," she says.

But it's not all work and no play. "I've also realized that I can get a little artsy with the weddings. They don't just want everyone lining up and smiling, they want something different," she says.

Perusing Palmer's portfolio there is a drastic difference in the color palette between the lush use of colors in her wedding and commercial photographs and the muted, desaturated tones of her creative pieces. Palmer explains that initially she used to only shoot in black and white and that it wasn't until she moved over to shooting digitally, rather than on film, that any color appeared in her photos at all. But the swapping of the darkroom for the computer screen wasn't an easy transition.

"I never thought I'd go digital, I didn't think the quality was there, but I joined the dark side at the end of 2004. I try to keep my Photoshop minimal. I only do what I would do in a darkroom," she says.

She also admits that shooting in digital has opened up a whole new world for her. Being able to see the pictures right away, rather than crossing her fingers in the darkroom hoping her camera caught the visions her eyes did. Because, as she suggests, "Sometimes you make mistakes as a photographer."

Not having to be economical when it comes to the use of film has also given her the liberty to take risks and being more experimental in ways that she wouldn't have been able to do before.

Speaking of the economical value of shooting digitally I ask if she's seen a drastic drop in work.

"Weirdly enough, no. But I think I know why. My stuff is affordable. If anything, I've gotten more business because people are realizing that they don't want to spend $3,000 on a wedding and they're realizing that they can do it for $500. I don't know when it comes to my artwork; you'll have to ask me [after the festival]. It has worried me a little bit because winter is so dead, I have to make enough money to carry us through until spring."

She's quick to follow her statement, "If you have a tight budget, are you going to buy food and pay your utilities or buy art? It's understandable."

I ask her, knowing that in the past she hasn't been afraid to ruffle a few feathers, if being a mother has changed her artistic approach?

"I just want to involve him more," she says, pausing for a moment before continuing, "I guess I haven't done anything too controversial yet, but it is coming, probably in the fall. I just haven't had time for the one thing that I've been wanting to get down on paper.

We laugh about the possibility of Jack, who is patrolling the hallway with his father, growing up to be a preppy jock despite having artists for parents who go out of their way to make art an active part of his life. "If it happens it won't be our fault," she says with a smile.

You can find Cat Palmer, and if you're lucky, Jack in booth 89. Or check out her and her husband's exhibit "Synergetic" at Art Access Gallery, 230 South 500 W. in Salt Lake City, thru July 10.

Agoraphobic? Try www.catpalmer.com