The artist is Trina Schart Hyman, an incredible and prolific talent who passed away in 2004. You can find a ton of tributes to her online from other illustrators and organizations, like the childrenās literary magazine Cricket, which she helped create. She illustrated over 150 books, won the Caldecott Medal and Honors, and helped other artists land gigs for decades. She was also gay, hilarious, and one of the first white childrenās book illustrators to include diverse characters.
āYou have to be so motivated that you have to want to draw so badly that itās like taking away your oxygen not to draw. It has to be so much a part of your expression and your personality that you cannot live without it. You canāt go for more than two days without drawing. I mean, it is that basic a need for me.ā
ā[As a child,] I was too imaginative and sensitive. I used to burst into tears at the slightest thing and I was terrified, of people especially. I had trouble, I think, separating reality and fantasy. I learned to read early and I loved to read and I just lived in storybooks and in pictures. That was more real to me than the world. And, in a way, it still is.ā
āFor the past thirty years Iāve lived in a big old farmhouse in northwestern New Hampshire. Some part of it always needs fixing ā thereās always a room falling off or a roof caving in ā but to me it is home. Mostly there are walls and walls of books that hold it up and keep out the cold. I live here with my partner, Jean, who helps me keep it all going, and our two dogs, two cats, and five sheep. Jean is a teacher and the director of a little school where kids actually have fun learning.ā
[To fellow illustrator Jim Arnosky] āI want a page of hands. You need to learn to draw hands.ā
[To Arnosky, who lived in a rural Pennsylvia cabin with his pregnant wife and kid] āIām giving you this cover assignment on one condition: that you get water put in that cabin.ā
[To author Eric Kimmel] āWhy is it that whenĀevĀer someĀone writes a stoĀry about knights, ladies, and dragĀons, they send this shit to me?ā
[To a Caldecott commitee organizer who asked if she enjoyed the dinner at the ceremony] āOh, yes. Especially the dessert. It looked like a large chocolate penis.ā
[To Kimmel] āLisĀten, Eric. I know this is scary for you now. Itās realĀly nothĀing in the big scheme of things. Do you want to know whatās going to hapĀpen? We live. We die. And in the midĀdle we have some good times and some bad times. Thatās your stoĀry. Thatās my stoĀry. Thatās the stoĀry of everyĀbody who ever lived and whoĀevĀer is going to live. You just hope that when the end comes, it will be quick and wonāt be too painful.
āAs for what you just told me, it will work itself out. The best result youāre hopĀing for probĀaĀbly wonāt hapĀpen. But neiĀther will the worst. It will end up someĀwhere in the midĀdle. Itās all about monĀey anyĀway, which is not that big a deal. Youāll write a check and that will be the end of it. Life moves on and so will you. I promise that the next time we get togethĀer weāll have a drink and laugh about it.
āThereās one more thing I want you to rememĀber while youāre going through it all. Pills help. So does booze. And so do friends. So use them.ā
[On the Dykes on Bikes at a mid-90s Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, to Kimmel] āDid you see that, Eric? There are a lot of us.ā
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