But with all of this early cognitive stimulus, my career as an illustrator and the field in which I now work and make my life, making picture books, presents such pressure on the imagination, taxing the ability to produce day in, day out, book to book, original fresh ideas and visions on demand that eventually it became more and more difficult to stay inspired. To keep my imaginative acuity stretchy and fluid. My imagination didn’t skip a beat! These exercises helped develop the ability to easily and without much effort, create a narrative from nothing. I would construct scenarios in my head about my siblings and gain revenge for perceived misdeeds and come out the hero in the end.
I would zoom in real close to a clump of grass and dirt and visualize moving through this landscape as a tiny scout until a lazy beetle or hasty ant would come by and chase me from my daydream. Seeking ways to keep the entertainment going, I would look at my surroundings in unusual ways like hanging my head over the edge of the sofa upside down and imagine walking through the house as if it were turned topsy- turvy. My imagination was forced to fly solo, on automatic pilot as it were. There were periods in my youth when my household had no TV or the money for a movie or a new book. Movies and television also provided visual stimuli to my budding imagination and I consumed everything within my orbit.
Comic books didn’t escape my attention, in particular Mad Magazine, DC Comics and Marvel. I would also digest and consume visual media such as magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Ebony. It would not change for me, the visualizing, as I began to read myself.
Picturing the tales as she spoke was easy and second nature. Early in my developing years my mom told me stories or read to me and I would visualize her words. Looking back after having illustrated about 100 picture books, of which only five I have also written, I find that I have been most inspired by things visual. I find inspiration in the oddest of places, at the oddest of times.
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