 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A
little bit about me:
...I
grew up in a quiet little town called Barrington, Rhode Island. When I was
eleven years old I started working in the commercial shell fishing industry
on Narragansett Bay, bullraking for quahogs out of leaky, flat bottom skiffs.
It was hard work, and sometimes dangerous, but I loved every minute of it.
...After high school I studied illustration at
the Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Upon graduating I collaborated with actor/comedian Whoopi Goldberg
creating the picture book Alice.
...Shortly
after, I moved to Los Angeles where I worked as an art director for computer
graphics pioneer Robert
Abel, the man responsible for some of the very first CGI commercials
and special effects.
...
For the next fourteen years I continued to work as a creative director in
the entertainment industry both here and abroad. At Walt Disney Imagineering
I designed many attractions at Disney’s Epcot,
including the Spaceship Earth Post-Show and the Mission Space Post-Show. While
at WDI I also served as the art director for DisneyQuest,
an interactive theme park in Downtown Disney. At Dreamworks, I was the pre-production
art director for the top grossing animated film Shrek,
where I created hundreds of illustrations that helped the animators create
the final look of the film. I also held positions on several museum projects
including the production designer for a 4D ride film at the Newseum
in Washington D.C., as well as media creative director for Paul Allen’s
Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame where I
was responsible for designing the first film ever produced for exhibition
on a completely spherical screen.
...In 2005 I shifted my focus back to children’s
books and created Wolf! Wolf! which garnered several
awards including Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book. My next
book, Moonpowder, was part of the Original Art Show
at the Society of Illustrators, and artwork from the book was selected for
a special nationwide traveling exhibition. The fall of 2009 marked the release
of my latest book, Fu
Finds the Way about a boy who finds courage in a pot of
tea. I also illustrate all the covers for Rick Riordan’s
bestselling YA series, Percy
Jackson and the Olympians.
...I now live in Brooklyn with my wife, Aileen,
my daughter, Alaya and our dog, Jag. I spend my time making new books and
traveling the country speaking about my work. When I am not doing that I can
be found in upstate Pennsylvania where we are restoring an 1860’s farmhouse
inhabited by a family of mice, six bats and several chipmunks.
