Maurice Sendak

Very sad news yesterday. Maurice Sendak has influenced my life, professionally and personally, in more ways than I can count or describe. He has been the lodestar for me since I can remember, and I still learn from him all the time. Everything I've learned about illustration, and everything I've come to think mattered about it, started with finding his work.

I feel very sad too, as in March I found out that I'd been awarded the Sendak Fellowship for 2012 along with two other illustrators. We were to have spent a month on Maurice Sendak's property this autumn, workshopping and learning with him. I was more excited than I know how to say.

I saw that one of my fellow Fellows wrote that he's been drawing more since hearing of getting the award - I have too, and with more passion and determination to improve. 

So that is another wonderful gift.

Goodbye, Maurice Sendak - thank you for everything.