“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
-Pablo Picasso
That quote continues to inspire me. I preserve my quirky childlike spirit in this often too adult world through humor. I blame my fundamentally twisted and macabre sense of humor that appears in my stories on genetics and being the oldest sibling of six – which included four brothers. Drawing my brothers with four eyes, my sister with snakes for arms, and our pets as space aliens was how I survived them all! With a half dozen siblings, whole crayons were in short supply. My paint usually ended up being used for decorative murals under the kitchen table. I would draw with whatever I could scrounge up.
My childhood characters, those modeled after my siblings, are now the characters of my stories. Like my siblings, these characters annoy, squabble, holler, and make a tremendous racket all throughout the writing of their tales. They have bold opinions on how their stories need to go. Each story is illustrated to match the uniqueness of the story. My characters are unrelenting and will not leave me alone until their story is perfect. In order to get any peace and quiet, I always give in!
