All my life I've drawn pictures. On tests, in books (my own, thankfully), on reams of paper, just about anything able to to receive ink or pencil. School was interesting here and there but while my parents were steering me towards a liberal arts eductation, Dad thought I'd be perfect in the Big Ten but I suspect he wanted a team to root for, I only had eyes for art school. When I was in the 8th grade there was a kid named Andy Ristaino who I absolutely worshipped. I thought he was the most talented kid in the whole entire world. He got into RISD and after that, that was it- I had to go too. Once I was convinced of my matching destiny (hey I was in the 8th grade, life is all id at 14) I worked hard to make it happen.

I'm in love with my job. I love drawing pictures and creating works for people. It's very satisfying to work with art directors and have an actual product in your hands when all is said and done. I still have so much to learn about illustrating books, I'm up to 12 now and still finding new tricks everytime. Ideally within the next year, I hope to have some of my own books coming out- I'm working on some projects. But I'm lucky, I enjoy what I do- I love being an illustrator.