FAST FACTS
Favorite Animal: I love all animals but there’s just something about elephants. Perhaps it’s the strong family bond that they have or how intelligent they are. Or just how adorable baby elephants look when they are trying to master the use of their trunks.
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Animal Pattern: Leopard or Zebra
Favorite Place: Africa
Favorite Safari Snack: Homemade flapjacks or a trail bar
Favorite Book – I have a few:
- The Female Nomad by Rita Goldman Geldman—I first read this book when I was traveling after university and it was the first book I had read where a woman was spending her life living in lots of different countries and environments. It made me realise that my ambitions to do so myself were not so crazy after all.
- Among The Elephants by Iain Douglas Hamilton—I’ve already mentioned my love of elephants and this book is about a young zoologist who goes out to Africa to study them. It seemed so romantic to me, to live in a hut in the wild surrounded by wildlife. He then meets his wife and they live in the African bush together, even more romantic.
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron—this is a guide book to take you through the process of discovering or rediscovering (if you’ve lost it) your creative self. I don’t think I ever lost my creative self but I love to go through the exercises to make sure I’m still being true to myself.
Conservation is important to me because: I can’t imagine how awful the world would be without all the wonderful creatures we share it with. And I love them all.
One of my favorite ways to recycle is clothes swaps with friends. When you are bored of your clothes rather than buy new ones, have a fun day with your friends trying on each other’s clothes.
I look up to Aaron Blaise for my artistic inspiration—his talent is amazing and I long to be that good. For the positive effect he’s had on conservation I would have to say David Attenborough—I think he’s reached more people with his message of the importance of conserving our planet than anyone else ever has.
One thing on my bucket list is to swim with humpback whales.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
I have always loved animals, and was passionate even as a child about conservation. My mom was a zoologist and her passion definitely rubbed off on me. As a child, I loved drawing and continued drawing into adulthood. Making up stories of my own and illustrating them was a favorite pastime of mine. I would even staple the stories together when I was done to turn them into books.
HOW CAN I BE LIKE YOU?
Read as many children’s books as you can and practice your drawing every day. It doesn’t matter what you draw but draw something so that you get better and more confident.
Try writing and illustrating your own stories—you can even staple the pages together to make a book.
You can try drawing real things and then use your imagination to change it up and make it look different—for example, bigger eyes or ears can help turn an animal or person into more of a cartoon.
If you want to create stories about animals, watching nature documentaries and spending time out in nature watching what animals do will help you learn about them.
Don’t get discouraged if you think you’re not very good. You only get good by practising all the time.