BIOGRAPHY

This is how I became an illustrator: when I was young we didn’t have a television. My father read to us at night and my mother read to me at naptime. The books my father chose were adventures, like Swiss Family Robinson, Kidnapped and Farmer Boy. Mom let me chose my own naptime books from the library. I would pull out stacks of books from the low shelves, choosing them by the pictures, of course. (One of my favorites was Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag.)

In our home, books were greatly valued and we each had our own library. Our relatives, and a lovely friend of the family, Lillian, would add to our collections. I still have all those books. 

My mother had studied art in college. She always made sure that I had crayons and paints, paper, scissors and glue, and best of all, time to experiment with them. I liked to fold the paper and staple the edges to make little books. 

Mom always encouraged me to develop my imagination—she would have me look at the clouds and tell her what shapes or animals I saw. Dad was an engineer; he taught me how to use tools to build the projects I dreamed up.  

In elementary school, I liked drawing and reading best. In high school, I’d paint posters for the pep rallies. A history teacher asked me to draw a Greek temple to be used in her classes. In geometry, I had the most colorful pie charts and graphs. I was determined to make every class an art class! And there were actual, wonderful art classes. We were introduced to printmaking and perspective, cartooning and collage, pen and ink, and watercolor. In college, I majored in Art and earned a degree in Illustration. For my senior year Special Project, I chose to write and illustrate a children’s book.  

After college, I worked in an art store along with many other art students. I sent some samples of my work to a greeting card company, and they asked me to send in paintings to be made into cards. Over several years, I was able to build a full-color portfolio that would open the next door for me. 

I moved to Connecticut to live closer to New York and the publishing world. With the help of an agent, I worked for four years creating art for textbooks. My work was shown to an art director at Little, Brown who was looking for someone who added borders to their illustrations — just what I had done on my cards— so they sent the manuscript to me. The Star Maiden started me on my way. From then on, each book led to the next one and I was able to return to California. My husband, Frank, and I live in a small town near the Central Coast.