When she graduated from high school, Kara Elsberry wanted to be an artist. “Since I could pick up a crayon,” she says, “it was all I ever wanted to do.” She dreamed of being a Disney animator or illustrating the gothic world and characters of a computer game. But in 1997 the cards seemed stacked against her.

Winner, South Dakota was a long way from Disney’s studios in southern California. The town of 3,000 people offered no role models or mentors for a would-be animator. At 18 she had shouldered serious adult responsibilities, becoming the mother of a baby girl. She and Albert Miller, her daughter’s father, needed to make some tough decisions.

Growing up, Kara had lived in various small towns in South Dakota. Her father was a teacher and school administrator. Between kindergarten and graduation Kara had lived in McGlaughlin, Hurley, Hoven, Freeman and Winner. Her mother worked as a writer and editor for various small town newspapers. After her parents divorced when Kara was in third grade, she and her four brothers had lived off and on with each of her parents.

With their new daughter, Kara and Albert decided to move closer to Kara’s mother who was living in Grand Island, Nebraska. Trying to keep herself on track, Kara enrolled at the University of Nebraska, Kearny as a graphic design major. She took various jobs so that she and Albert could keep a roof over their heads, but trying to be a student and a working mom didn’t go well. When her younger borther was killed in a car accident, the family was devastated. Kara’s mother moved to Columbus, Ohio to be closer to her own parents. Kara and Albert packed up the baby and went with her.

Columbus was a shock. With as many residents as the entire state of South Dakota, the city “was a mad house,” Kara says. The day that she and Albert moved in an FBI agent knocked on their door to ask questions about a neighbor. She couldn’t get used to the traffic. The cost of living was so much higher. Albert got a job with a pavement contractor. She looked for work. When she found a job selling fine art out of a catalog door-to-door, she took it because she thought it would keep her closer to her dream. She also enrolled in a distance learning program with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh to major in game design.

She liked learning online. After her son was born, distance learning gave her the flexibility she needed to tend to the children, work, and go to school. She often studied late at night after the rest of the family had gone to bed. The faculty made her feel comfortable with what she was doing, but Kara soon realized that game design was not for her. It was very technical and expensive, demanding a powerful computer and high-priced software.

Fortunately, one of her professors at the Art Institute told her about Guru.Com. Founded in 1999, Guru was one of several online start-ups hoping to build a business by connecting freelancers with employers in a world increasingly reliant on outsourcing. On Guru, Kara could post her resume and scan lists of projects offered by people looking to commission art work. Bidding for jobs was extremely competitive. With people in India and other developing nations competing for the work, the pay could be very low. On her first job illustrating a number of children’s books, “I worked for pennies.”

The work for Guru clients gave her a portfolio. She began to build a loyal clientele of her own. Working part-time as a secretary as a local church and illustrating for various clients, Kara began her transition to a career as a professional artist with clients scattered around the world.

Kara and Albert were still not comfortable living in Columbus. They were barely getting by. They had purchased a camper and were living in it with their two young children, moving from one place to another throughout the year. They often talked about returning to South Dakota.

In 2003, Kara’s father offered them an option. He was leaving his job as superintendent of schools in Hoven to teach in another community. Located far from any metropolis in the north central section of South Dakota with a population of only 500 people, Hoven didn’t have an active real estate market. Kara and Albert could have his house if they were willing to take over the mortgage payments.

Moving was a gamble. In a small town economy, Albert might not find a job right away. Commuting more than eighty miles to Pierre or Aberdeen, the closest cities with more than 5,000 people, would cut deeply into whatever take-home pay he would earn. Kara’s income from illustrating would have to continue and grow. They wanted that small town quality of life, and they were willing to take the chance.

Since moving to Hoven, Kara has had to overcome a number of challenges to make her work viable. She invested in a satellite dish to give her a broadband connection. To meet her deadlines, she sketches while the kids are in school and then returns to the work at night. Because she spent so much time at home, a lot of people in this tight-knit community weren’t sure what to make of her. ”A lot of people didn’t understand what I do,” she says. Her anonymity disappeared in November, however, after the Hoven paper ran a front-page story on her “Free Lance Home Office.”

After four years in the community, life has settled into a rhythm. Albert works for the school district as a custodian. Kara designs business logos and T-shirts for clients far away and shows her art in a gallery in Florida. She has become the art director for a publishing company in Canada. She frequently does illustrations for another publisher in Indiana. Her illustrations appear in children’s stories and steamy romance novels. From her home on the prairie, her art travels digitally to clients and printing presses hundreds and thousands of miles away.