My background is in the Fine Arts but I made my career in Graphic Design and Website Design/Development.
I have been doing SEO for about as far back as it's existed. At least 1998 if not before that. Whenever Google existed! Yes, I did the black hat stuff too. I understood what it was all about, how searches were done, what it took to be on the first page.
SEO/SEM is such a broad field now, that it's more than a one person show... very hard to explain to clients that they need this, they need to update their sites often and with good content and that it's not going to change! Even so, I love doing it, watching stats and seeing sites I have worked hard on jump above others in rank. I have come here to learn more and get better.