As an artist, humor is an extremely valuable asset to me. Humor is probably my strongest personal trait and a few minutes alone with my work would get that across to anyone. I employ my sense of humor differently in each project I am working on. For example, much of my design work grabs you by your face and pulls you into it, using sarcasm or a whimsical image to keep you connected. The overall tone is much different from the one I employ when creating an illustration. When working on an illustration, I often stick to flat-out, tongue in cheek humor. Just a quick “sight gag”. Although my illustration and graphic design remain quite separate, you can still see how one influences the other.

Art is an almost compulsory action for me. A particular quote by sculpture Stephen DeStaebler once caught my attention: “Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.” This precisely how I feel as well. As painful as it is to spend 2 hours simply kerning text to line up perfectly with the page edge, it is far more painful for me to just sit around and watch television when I know I could be creating something. When I create an image or a design, I do so because I feel it is necessary. I draw because I have an image in my head that is nagging to be released. I design because someone needs to give the project its look.

When I am not doing design work, I focus on my cartoons and illustrations. I have doodled and sketched in the margins of every notebook page I have ever touched. It was never simply because I was bored in class or I disliked the subjects; I had an urge to move my pen. I might not know what I am drawing when I start, but my pen has to move. This is the way I have been since I could grip a crayon and this is the way I shall be when my arthritic hands can no longer do so.