About Me

My friends call me Prag, a nickname shortened from my full name -- Pragnesh Shah..

I was born in Washington D.C. (one of relatively few actually born in the city itself), grew up outside of historic Annapolis, Maryland, and have had the privilege of living in: power-center Washington DC, bean-town Boston, midwest 'Wizard of Oz' Kansas City, world's largest city Tokyo/Japan, coastal charm Charleston South Carolina, mile-high city Denver, and am currently living in vibrant, creative Los Angeles.

I am a combo "left-brained" analytical business person + literally a left-handed, "right-brained" creative artist. Before business school, I started my early career as a mechanical and aerospace engineer with NASA; I pursued design engineering because without role models in high school I got talked out of pursuing what I was really interested in: architecture/interior design (!). Ever since grade-school, I have enjoyed art and visually=creative pursuits: drawing, photography, design.  Perhaps I literally fit the: "I am a colorful cat."

In a 2023 National Geographic magazine issue, I read an article spotlighting Brian May, co-founder and guitarist of rock band Queen + an astrophysicist with a PhD. In the article he was asked why/how he mashes up those different fields? His response:

"I was told that I couldn’t do both art and science as I progressed through school. And I was very resentful about that because I love them both. I feel like the rest of my life has been trying to prove 'them' wrong. More and more and more, I’ve discovered that artistic thinking and scientific thinking are just different parts of the same thing. It’s a continuum. They’re inextricably linked. You have to have both sides to function at your full potential."
   - Sir Brian May 
      [Queen guitarist + PhD. astrophysicist]

His quote resonates with me, and in parallel also explains so much of who I am...

Cheers, Prag

(e) prag.shah@mac.com
Los Angeles, California