The first problem I encountered on the path to becoming an author and illustrator of children’s books was in second grade. George, my best friend, asked me why all the people I drew had giant turnips growing out of their heads. “That’s their hair,” I said. My ex-best friend George almost choked with laughter.
The second problem happened in third grade. My art teacher, Mr. B., failed me on an art project. I could not draw a perfectly symmetrical flower vase. “If you can’t draw a perfectly symmetrical flower vase,” Mr. B. said, “you’ll never learn to draw.” Discouraged, I gave up drawing for the next ten years.
Then along came the suggestion of piano lessons. We had no piano at home. I had to practice on a cardboard replica of a piano keyboard. I had absolutely no musical talent at all. But despite all those factors, it took me only a year to learn to play Chopsticks. Then, at the suggestion of my piano teacher, my musical career was terminated.
When I was ten years old, I became a child actress. It was wonderful! I acted on stage, a play called Speaking of Murder (where I discovered the corpse in the family vault), in a TV series, Tidewater Tramp, and made-for-TV plays. I missed a lot of school and was the envy of my classmates. Unfortunately, our whole family moved from Vancouver back to Montréal and my promising acting career bit the dust.
By the time I became a disgruntled and bored teenager of seventeen or so, something strange and wonderful happened: a series of bizarre cartoon creatures invaded my schoolbooks. Purple pigs flew in and out of my math equations, birds wearing hats skated on my Latin verbs, rabbits floated dreamily in the margins of my chemistry notebook and cats wearing running shoes snored on top of my algebra problems. I was the creator of these creatures! Obviously, my mind was elsewhere. You just had to look at my report card.
Someone suggested that I try art school. I enrolled in L’Institut des Arts Graphiques de Montréal, where I learned typography, graphic design and perspective. But a need to be more creative and imaginative brought me to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School where I majored in animation. I knew I had found my passion! I then set out, my portfolio under my arm, to conquer the world of illustration. I created cartoon strips, illustrated textbooks and did editorial illustration.
A few years later, I fell in love with children’s books. I fell in love with the idea of weaving words and images to create stories, pages and pages where my characters would run and cavort, laugh and cry. Where everything was possible.
Since then, I have written and/or illustrated over 50 books for children inspired by my childhood, then by my own children, by my travels and especially by my overheated imagination. Most of the books have been translated into many languages. Languages that I cannot even speak or read: Slovenian, Chinese, Korean, German and Portuguese, to name a few. Fortunately, my illustrations can be “read” in any language.
I have also illustrated children’s clothes, posters and billboards. I have written plays for children as well as designing the puppets, sets and costumes.
A few things still have to be said:
I still draw people with funny hair.
I still can’t draw a symmetrical vase.
I can still play Chopsticks.
I still love writing and illustrating books for children.
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