But that was, I think, the bravest thing or the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life, because I had no idea what I was getting into. I really was a very young 18 year-old, but I just jumped in with both feet and struggled for years and years, doing one thing or another, never really finding out where I belonged until I started doing children’s books
I teach at Pratt one day a week and I tell my students, “You don’t go from your dreams in a straight line to realizing them.” You know, you go all over the place and take a very circuitous route. And maybe you’ll wind up someplace that you didn’t even expect to.
Certainly, I didn’t really think of children’s books, or picture books, when I was searching out my career. And I think that one of the main reasons was that there weren’t that many picture books then. Picture books didn’t really come on the scene in a big way until the late ’70s and the early ’80s, which, I guess, had to do with demographics and certainly technology. They got better at being able to do picture books in color. So, I kind of rode that crest and here I am!
