Her mother was from Michigan, and her father belonged to the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians in the Kumeyaay Nation.
The family only learned she was deaf at six years old, and she credits her main form of expression before and then after this discovery was art.
Two of her greatest inspirations were Jean Michel Basquiat and Jacob Lawrence and their work in the civil rights movement.
[1][5][6] Rourke's career began with a variety of graphic design jobs, at companies such as Xerox, 20th Century Fox, and Microsoft.
[1][5][7][8][9] Some of her experience also pertains to assisting deaf inmates who did not have access to interpreters or video phones in prison, and creating programs to expand their artistic abilities.