1994: 11 year old Devon. I had always loved art and then we had a project to make a book. We were to write and illustrate a story. My teacher thought mine was really good and had me visit the grade 1 kids and read it to them.

2008: 26 year old Devon. I had completed art school, did some drafting work, and now worked in admin but missed art as part of my daily life. Really missed it. House too small and son too young for me to really pull out my supplies and spend time creating. Realization that what I would ultimately love to do is write and illustrate kids books. And it didn’t have to be my main ‘thing’. But doing this work would make me happy.

2018: 35 year old Devon. Decided I have to do or start something. House too small? Don’t care. Busy with kids? Make time. Supplies old and moldy from sitting in a crawlspace box for quite possibly 13 years? Clean off what I could and buy a few more watercolour tubes. Putting myself out there and people actually seeing my hobby and what I want to do? Get over it. People pay much closer attention to themselves anyway.

This is when I asked my friend’s daughter to help me start my blog/ website. She just happened to be starting work in this field and I decided to consult her with my plan to make something happen.

4 years later, I have been posting to this blog weekly, and posting an art piece to the Instagram account every Monday, Wednesday and Friday without fail. In addition to that, I started playing with creating Reels in August last year.

2022: 39 year old Devon. I was approached about illustrating a book! So I created some samples and put together some ideas. We had spoken over video calls a few times and met for the first time on Saturday. We are going ahead with the book and you can see my Instagram for the post with the details of the announcement.

I am so thrilled to be working on a project I have visualized doing for years.

It has been a journey. And things unfold and happen in good time. I look forward to sharing the progress and then the final project with you in the coming months!

Sending Love,

Devon