FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

— What medium do you use for your illustrations?

            The vast majority of my illustrations are created using Prismacolor coloured pencil on grey illustration board. All black and white sketches and drawings are done with good-ol graphite.

—Do you sell your artwork?

I never sell my originals as I am too attached to them, but I do sell prints. Often I will sell my prints at local events. I also have an account at Scociety6!

— Where do you get inspiration/ what sort of things inspire you?

           Music is an enormously powerful driving force behind my work.  Usually I'll become somewhat fixated on listening to a certain band, after which their sound becomes the temporary soundtrack of my life. Often my fixation stems from an unconscious yearning to grasp an upcoming epiphany.  Just a few of my most common go-to bands for inspiration are Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, The Birthday Massacre, Korn, Kamelot, Nebelhexe, Loreena McKennitt and Arcana. Films and shows such as Closet Land, The Dead Poets Society, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, What Dreams May Come, The Green Mile, Eraserhead, Angel's Egg, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hannibal and Bates Motel have been hugely inspiring. I have a weakness for anything that is both psychological and spiritual. 2003 Peter Pan is my favourite Peter Pan adaptation and quite possibly my favourite movie of all time because of its Jungian take on the tale, and Jason Issacs ingenious portrayal of Captain Hook.

          Aside from music and movies, I garner inspiration from a variety of venues, most predominately nature itself (walks in the woods are essential) and antique stores. I adore vintage items that ooze a certain kind of mystery and nostalgia. I am especially compelled by kitschy deer figurines (I collect them!), mysterious religious ephemera, Venetian masks, old images of theatre or carnivals, anything Dionysian amd decadent, tarot cards,  vintage children's storybooks and even 90s Pokemon cards. The archetype of childhood wonder is very fascinating to me—both individual childhood and the primordial childhood of mankind itself. I constantly devour books about alchemy, astrology, mythology, Jungian psychology (of course!), occultism and more.  History in general is an inspiration to me. Ancient times, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Revolution, Victorian all the way through the Great Depression and across the rest of the twentieth century. You name it, I'm interested. Every time period has its riveting light and intriguing darkness.

I am also very interested in cosmic, psychedelic and futuristic things.  I adore anything glowing from the warm and soothing faerie lights of a mysterious forest to the glaring neon signs of a decaying metropolis. More recently I’ve become incredibly interested in shibari and the raw vulnerability that uniquely emerges from that artform.

—Who are your greatest influences?

          Intellectually, as I’ve probably already mentioned his name here 75 times, my biggest influence is the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. I also adore Joseph Campbell and Richard Tarnas. Artistically, my biggest influence is Mark Ryden. Mark has been an incredible source of inspiration for me and one which I have revisited over and over in much the same way that I tend to revisit my favourite bands. In addition to Mark Ryden, I am very fascinated by the surrealist low-brow art movement in general and the archetypes unconsciously expressed therein, including artists such as Ray Caesar, Nicoletta Ceccoli,  Laurie Lipton,  Lori Early, and Eric Fortune. Greg Spalenka is another artist who has not only been an inspiration to me, but a great friend as well.

As far as the old masters go, the list is endless. Bosch, Bouguereau, Rubens, Fragonard--and later artists too like Magritte,  Ernst Fuchs and Norman Lindsay. Old alchemical/Hermetic illustrations are also exceedingly compelling to me, and I've been known to study them for hours. In 2013 I took a trip to Italy that changed my life, and stirred deep within my soul an utter fascination with the dreamy, enigmatic coexistence of Christian and Pagan imagery during the Renaissance.

         Writing-wise, I find my influences are harder to pinpoint. My writing style emerged through my studying the craft of creative writing more through the readings of short stories, many of which I can't recall the author. When I was a child, I adored Junior Great Books and could marvel for hours at the deep, mysterious quality of the stories. Anais Nin has been quite an influence, as well as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, e.e. cummings, Rainer Maria Rilke, Angela Carter, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Certain elements of J.D. Salinger's unique dialogue and blocking also tend to seep into the style of my work. Recently, I fell in love with the lush, Jungian inspired prose of Demian by Herman Hesse. My writing would not be what it is today, though, if it weren’t for the help of my awesome mentor and fellow author, Adam Schuitema.

— Alastair is the star, but you have many other characters in your novels—why do you mostly draw pictures of him?

             In truth, my art is not so much a way for me to literally capture my story as it's written. Rather, it is a separate venue for the predominate archetypes of my unconscious to unleash themselves. Alastair is essentially my muse and animus. He is the strongest force in me that desires to be expressed. Since my artwork is highly archetypal, he and his 'queen' appear most frequently. The result is a reoccurring yin-yang motif that plays upon the grander themes of my story. I know that once I have delved deeper into the remaining volumes,  however, other critical characters will begin to appear more often in my illustrations. There is so much more to come!

—Did you really meet your husband AFTER you already had your character Alastair? The resemblance is uncanny.

Yep, I certainly did. That is a whole huge topic in itself I could write volumes about. It is the most magical thing that has ever happened to me and always will be. You can read about our love story here on the website I created for our wedding back in 2017. Anyone who is interested in hearing more about the whole thing in-depth, feel free to e-mail or DM me, I’m pretty much an open book. Let me just say this: manifestation WORKS—but it is far more complex and nuanced than what the trendy, fluffy New Age discourse would have you believe.

—Do you do commissions?

            The short answer is no, but I may make an exception if I feel the project is extremely suited to my specific art style. If the project is related to my series (i.e. a request to draw a certain scene or character(s) from The Weather Inside) then I am more than willing to consider it!