I was born in Indiana but raised in New Hampshire.
My parents noticed that I had a talent for drawing at a pretty young
age. I remember at age six or seven
I would draw to entertain myself, when my older brother Eric wasn’t
around. I came up with some pretty crazy stuff,
that my Mom would dote over and make hundreds of photocopies to send
to relatives. I think initially, I liked the attention drawing got me,
which is probably why I stuck with it.
In school my absolute favorite thing, besides Art, was when we could
write our own stories. Over the years my teachers have been blessed
with such titles as “The Leprechaun
and Me”, “Me and My Turkey”,
and the infamous “Candy Island”.
At home, I would watch Disney Afternoon, every day after school. That,
along with my brother’s collection of Uncle Scrooge comics, gave
me my first introduction to the world of Disney. After seeing The Little
Mermaid though, my love of everything Disney, quickly turned into obsession!
I wanted to be a Disney Animator. I even wrote to Mr.
Eisner to ask for his advice on how to do that. His advice was to
draw everything and anything, but never trace...So I took that to mean
that I should draw every Disney character ever created! So that’s
what I did. I would spend hours drawing characters from the Little
Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,
Lion King, Lady
and the Tramp, Pocahontas,
101 Dalmatians, Aladdin,
Mickey and Minnie...whoever!
In a way, drawing those characters, taught me a lot... some artist’s
learn from Da Vinci, or Rembrandt....I preferred learning from those
animators from Disney’s golden years.
So labeled the “Disney girl” I went to High School fully
intending on becoming a Disney employee. I could see only one problem
with my brilliant plan. I really wasn’t very good at drawing things
in motion. I actually kind of preferred to draw things slowly, taking
time to add a lot of detail. I agonized over this as I tried to decide
on a college.
Then I took a Children’s Literature class, and everything kind
of clicked into place. I loved telling stories! I wanted to illustrate
stories, but not on the big screen...in children’s books! In this
class I rewrote the classic Cinderella story and named it “Sophia’s
Hen”, and also wrote and illustrated my first picture book
entitled “Minnie’s Attic”.
After figuring out that Illustration was what I wanted to do, picking
a college was, in comparison, much easier. Syracuse University was the
lucky winner, and I started as a freshman in the College of Visual and
Performing Arts. After a rough start in which I questioned my ability
to draw a pile of mud, let alone anything of substance, I slowly started
to get the hang of things.
My Junior year, spring semester, was spent living and studying in Florence,
Italy. I saw an amazing array of masterpieces during that semester,
which was intimidating at times, but more often then not, was inspiring.
I traveled all over Europe, and saw as much as I could. I visited Etruscan
tombs, got sun-burned on the island of Capri,
cheered at a soccer game in Rome, had
confetti thrown at me during the Fasnacht
Festival in Basel, ate snails in Paris,
got lost in Venice, and made some
great friends in Florence. Florence
was also where I discovered the art of Batik,
the ancient art of painting wax on silk and then dyeing the silk.
I returned home unsure of where I would fit into the grand world of
Art History.
Although the process of becoming an artist seemed painful at the time,
I will now
say that it was all worth it. I credit my current success and confidence
to my former professors Murray
Tinkelman, Roger DeMuth,
Yvonne Buchanan, Bob
Dacey, and John Thompson.
Even though at times I hated their critiques and proddings, they taught
me that that was just part of the art world, and if I wanted to make
it, I needed to develop some “thick skin”.
So a few skin layers later, I graduated from SU and moved home to New
Hampshire to start my freelance business which I cleverly dubbed N.E.V.A.
or New Expressions of Visual Art. You can read about my projects through
this freelance venture here.
I also work as a PR Coordinator at the Currier
Museum of Art...visit us today!
So here I am, living and working in the best state in the union...I
have an awesome family, wonderful boyfriend,
and am doing the one thing that makes me happy.
The thing that drives me to continue pursuing a freelance art career,
certainly isn’t the promise of money or fame, but it is the passion
I feel for creating something beautiful that could help shape the ideals
of an entire generation. Children’s books are well suited to reach
an enormously receptive audience, giving me, the Illustrator, the chance
to promote ideas of global equality, respect, and love. That is what
I want my career as an Illustrator to be about, and it is what I am
always working towards.
