I ended up in special ed as an educator. I was there looking for a position as a teacher and when I graduated I was ill-prepared for what I studied, I studied graphic design illustration. I had a major in art education, so when I left, as I said, I was ill-prepared for that business side of the illustration industry. So I didn’t do illustration at all, I didn’t paint for eight years after school.
And so, I went into teaching. And at that time, the only job that you get as a teacher was substituting. I did a lot of substituting, would substitute second grade and high school and then, there was an opportunity to work at a hospital, working with patients who were suffering from various psychological psychosis.
But they loved me, they loved me coming in and giving them this outlet. And I loved being there! It got to a point though as an educator, as someone who loves to see progress, it was little to hard to be there at the hospital. It became a revolving door.
So after too long, I needed something to make that transition. And children’s books came in and it came in a way, that unexpected. I was approached by an agent, my agent Jeff Dwyer, he calls me up and says “Mr. Lewis, I saw the Artist Magazine you know the cover. I represent authors and illustrators of kids’ books and I want to know if you’re interested in doing kids’ books.”
I said no, I’m a fine artist not an illustrator. So what’s the difference? And I went on to explain. And he says, you know what, you need to see what’s going on in kids’ books.
I said I have kids and you know they love Eric Carle and Steven Kellogg. He said, well do you know who Barry Moser is? No. Do you know Chris Van Allsburg? No. What about Jerry Pinkney? No. He said, you need to see what’s going on in kids’ books. So on my lunch break I went to a bookstore.
And I was sitting there everyday, I went there for two weeks straight, everyday on my lunch break to look at these books and I get this incredible edification. And after two weeks I was hooked, I’m like, I’ve got to do this work.
I called this guy back, you know Jeff. I said, you know what, I misspoke, I’ve got to do books. How did I say no to this, this is an incredible world. And so what I realized is that I had discovered some of the best artwork in the country is being done in kids’ books. So I called, so when Jeff said look, I already had, you know I already knew you were going to change your mind, so I took a liberty of sending your slides to nine different publishers, so we’ll wait to see what happens.
So I said, okay. So, he said, you know. I said, well I’m excited to get started. He says, well you know, young Turk you know, this doesn’t work that way cause I have artists and illustrators, authors and illustrators that I love their work, but I can’t find manuscripts and authors to pick them up. So we’ll just have to wait to see what happens.
Well, three or four days pass, he gives me a call back. He says, guess what happened? I said, what? He said, six of those nine publishers that I sent your work to, six of them want you to do books for them. I said, really? He said it means you quit your job. So I quit my job, and the rest is history.
