My Pen License

I thought for the first blog, let’s take a trip down memory lane to the beginning…….

Like many artists, I was born with a pen license. When I was 3 my dad would have to bring paper from work for me to draw on or I’d draw on the wallpaper in the house we rented in Auckland, NZ - which was probably a good thing too because they were hideous. I still remember that house and that wallpaper which had these weird floral designs that were repeated every 3rd design. I still remember that because the floral designs looked like monsters that would freak me out if I stared too long at them - they did inspire me though to draw monsters at home and at school.

Then I got older, and dinosaurs came into the picture and boy did I love drawing dinosaurs!! At least I was better at drawing them than pronouncing their damn names - pretty sure I would’ve offended someone. Mind you this was the mid to late 80s too, so they had the best books and cartoons at the time as well. Transformers, G.I Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the best version) Looney Toons - so much inspiration for crazy kid like me, and I soaked it all up.

I was drawing robots, dinosaurs, spaceships, aliens, monsters - anything that was not a boring human. I was either copying from books, magazines, cereal boxes or I was creating my own monstrosities. The great thing about growing up in NZ as a kid was the morning cartoons, the art stores, lots of paper and pens and so many toys - MacDonalds used to have the best toys as part of their Happy Meals - Life was good for a young creative. Then a large shipping container appeared at the front of our house and my whole life turned upside down….to be continued…