If people ask what I do, I usually say:

“I draw pictures for books.”

Then they ask — “How did you become that?”

So…

I started university way back in 1998 with a plan to become a teacher — specifically Grade 5.

During my degree in Education, I fell in love with Play and Art Therapy (oops!)… this made far more sense to my heart.

Then thankfully, after months of rationing Puffed Wheat (these jobs barely covered rent and fuel), my professor asked if I’d work as a Clown Doctor in his new program, Fools for Health. My first response was, “I’m not funny.” He said, “Good — I’m not looking for funny, I’m looking for connected.”

The training turned me inside out. Clown Doctors are real — like the Velveteen Rabbit. Hearts on their sleeves, open, raw, and gentle (funny too, but it’s not the most important factor).

As highly trained practitioners, we visited patients of all ages — using music, play, and silliness in moments that needed light.

There was such honour in being invited into those spaces. It taught me how to sit with people when words weren’t enough.

As funding sadly dwindled, I had to seek new opportunities.

Around that time, I also worked in the paint department at Home Depot for a few years — which sounds wildly unrelated until you realize how often colour, environment, and sensory space come into play in my work today.

I continued teaching art part-time at GemFest, completed Snoezelen training, led puppetry classes, and worked on murals for school sensory rooms — layering creative practice with sensory-informed environments wherever I could.

Motherhood arrived with ease, and my husband and I welcomed three incredible children who rearranged my world in all the right ways.

If anything, becoming a mother clicked everything into place for me.

In 2018, our middle son was diagnosed with Level 2, nonverbal Autism. And that shifted my path again — not away from my work, but deeper into it.

He attends school part-time, which gives me three quiet days each week to dedicate to the other children in our world.

My first “Arsty gig” was creating greeting cards (something my Gramoo insisted I’d be an expert at) and selling them in our neighbourhood Facebook group, dragging my sweet boy along on the deliveries.

I had many people order cards, but one inspired woman then asked if I’d illustrate her children’s book.

I said yes. Hesitantly. I had never illustrated a whole book beyond “Muffin Writes,” my Grade 3 masterpiece.

This led to creating the Amazon Bestseller Everlong by Marcie Costello, among a few other noteworthy books. It felt amazing to help these authors achieve their dreams of becoming published writers.

But somewhere along the way, I realized the stories growing inside me were getting pushy, wanting to be heard too.

The English edition will be available this March. (Yay!)

These days, I’m focusing more on writing my own worlds — including my YA novel (coming early 2027).

One of the characters communicates in ways inspired by my son… and what excites me most is the hope that readers will truly “hear” nonverbal communication in a new way.

I’m not accepting illustration commissions at the moment.

But I do visit schools across the GTA — illustration talks, storytelling sessions and puppetry shows with Stella, and Autism-in-Literature conversations.

(I’m fully bonded with the TDSB — which feels very official considering I spent most of my 20s behind a red rubber nose.)

You can check my calendar here.

And truly… thank you for being here.

Please stay awhile and be sure to visit Stella and her friends.