Have done layout and ads for 20-page monthly newsletter, complete with table of contents, plus occasional ad design and tables. Currently Art Director for small town weekly entertainment newspaper, working with clients on ad design and refining layout of paper.
Freelance book illustrator, published with Harcourt-Brace and McGraw-Hill, among others.
Art is in my genes. My paternal grandfather, Wood Cowan, was a cartoonist (political and otherwise) and had a successful career from the 1920s through the 1970s. When I was a little girl, I spent hours with him and copied cartoons from the "funny pages." My mother is also an artist, with her own unique style.
I started my career as a teenager with pen and ink; drawing people, mostly. My goal then was to become an illustrator; one that has been realized with close to a dozen published books and a chance to work on a cover for one of the famous Chicken Soup books.
My work follows the classic school, although I very much enjoy modern art. When my son was two, I decided to go back to college. I took figure drawing and watercolor. Although I liked them both, watercolor has become my medium of choice.
Currently, I have paintings and prints on display in shops in Iowa as well as a line of greeting cards. The greeting cards have been especially rewarding because I get to tell a story in one painting. I also have a line of silk screened cards.
I am inspired by such well known illustrators as Chris Van Allsburg, William Joyce, Beatrix Potter, Maurice Sendak, Charles Mikolaycak, Jessie Willcox Smith, Kate Greenaway, N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell and David Wiesner, to name a few. I have a great love of children’s books, one of the few book categories that is still lavishly illustrated.
I love color, beauty and texture. If I had my choice, I would study every beautiful thing (and there are plenty, in unexpected places). Then I would attempt my own interpretation, share that with the world and continue to grow in perception and appreciation of this incredible world we live in.
