I grew up in a little town in Pennsylvania called Clearfield. It was in a little valley in the Alleghenies, and there were lots of woods and farms. I guess that’s how I came to have such an affinity for animals and nature. It’s always been a big part of my life.
But I’ve always drawn. I’ve drawn on paper bags and sidewalks and napkins and in the inside of my mother’s books, which I’m sure if she was still alive, she would forgive me now, but then she was pretty upset about it. But I never wanted to be anything but an artist. I never could be anything but an artist. I wanted to be a pirate for a while, but there wasn’t much calling for that. So I went back to my art. And just all the way through grade school, junior high, and high school, I was encouraged by my art teachers and by my parents. I was encouraged by my parents until it came time to go to art school, and then they didn’t like that idea very much. They didn’t like the idea of me going to New York. They wanted me to go get a liberal arts education and major in art, because they didn’t really think that you could make a living at it. They certainly didn’t think a woman could make a living at it. This was back in the fifties.
But I insisted and said if I didn’t go to art school, I wasn’t going to go to school. So, I went to Pratt Institute.
