Like everyone, I want to make my own "fine art."
I've kept voluminous diaries since I was eighteen, and do a lot of experimental writing.
Often the energy of a piece is more exciting to me than the subject.
I like to follow my own muse.
You set your reality and carefully construct it so that it has a certain feeling, an energy. That's the vital, visceral thing about making an illustration.
My parents were into 40s big band stuff, and my father was a great dancer to that kind of thing. But rock 'n' roll? No. I wanted a guitar, but my mother didn't really want me to have one. At some point I played a violin, but I didn't last long at that.