WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO ILLUSTRATE CHILDREN’S BOOKS?
"When I was a gloomy teenager I loved to write poetry and illustrate it. At some point I came across Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak—a very weird and moody picture book for an indeterminate audience. Not indeterminate—I knew it was a book published for young kids—but it seemed like it was as much a book for gloomy teenagers. Or anybody, really. Anyway, it was the first book I remember seeing that married these two things that I loved to do in such a satisfying way, and I think the fact that it didn’t seem explicitly for children—or not for children—impressed me. Also, I think I found it at a moment that I was wishing I was still a carefree kid, not someone about to be an adult and ill-equipped for it. It must have felt good to get lost in a mysterious book that made me feel little again. Basically, it was a book that made deep sense to me in that moment, and it inspired a life-long obsession with picture books." - Carson Ellis
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