About the Artist

My name is Natalie Sweet, I am an active police officer with West Valley Mission College District Police. I have 11 years of Law Enforcement experience and I am currently assigned to the investigations unit. As an investigator, I have found composite art to be a useful tool, and have discovered that composite art is often not used to it's fullest potential. Therefore, my goal is to encourage all Law Enforcement agencies to utilize composite art as another crime fighting tool.

In 1983 I attended the Instutute for Business and Technology and received a degree in Mechanical Drafting. I continued my training which included classes in Computer Aided Drafting, Electronic Drafting and Architectural Drafting. I worked as a drafter and a cartographer utilizing both board drawings and computer aided drawings.

In 1994 I decided on a career change. Having an interest in Law Enforcement, I entered the police academy and began my new career as a police officer.

I have always enjoyed art and have been drawing and painting since I was a child. My love of art has never left me and after settling into my career in Law Enforcement I began taking private art lessons, learning how to create portraits of people and animals. I sought a way of combining my love of art and a Law Enforcement career. The combination came naturally and I became a Composite Artist.

I received my POST certified composite art training from Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks of Stuart Parks Forensic Associates (www.stuartparks.com). My training includes the following classes: Composite Drawing for Law Enforcement: Basic class, Composite Drawing for Law Enforcement: Workshop I, Composite Drawing for Law Enforcement: Certification, Composite Drawing for Law Enforcement: Advanced Forensic Artist Seminar, Composite Drawing for Law Enforcement: Advanced Forensic Art. I received additional forensic art training in 3 dimensional facial reconstruction from Betty Pat. Gatliff in Norman, Oklahoma. My training includes a Basic Facial Reconstruction class and an Advanced Facial Reconstruction class.

In addition to working as a forensic artist for my agency, my forensic art services are also available to other Law Enforcement Agencies.

Contact: Natalie Sweet (831) 771-9163, or e-mail: natalie@compositeartist.com