I always wasted my childhood allowance on comic books.  Back in those days, it was the story that obsessed me.  As time went by though, a greater appreciation of the artists grew in me.  And, while my love of comic books has never left me (and has been handed down to my son and youngest daughter), a deeper love for illustration has grown.  Now, I look to artists like Howard Pyle, Joseph Clement Coll, Violet Brunton, Edward Gorey, and Franklin Booth as heroes of illustration. 

 

I create illustrations that exist outside of their books. By installing my pen and ink drawings into the actual book, I try to create a sense of depth and dimension that is otherwise difficult in traditional illustration.  Often there are hidden scenes drawn on the parts of the bookmark inside the book, a secret only some viewers know.  

 

I work almost exclusively with pen and India ink on the thickest watercolor paper I can find.  All of this magic is created on a dining room table in Melrose, Massachusetts.

 

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