During my childhood in Fairport, New York, I was always the kid hunched over my desk with a big mess of crayons. The apex of my artistic career came early, when at 9 years, I won both first and third prize in an Easter egg decorating contest judged by my classmates.

I spent four exciting years at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1985. In 1989 I got two big breaks – my first magazine work, for Cricket magazine, and my first book job, illustrating The Watching Game by Louise Borden, which was published by Scholastic in 1991.

Since then I have illustrated over 20 children's books, both trade and educational. I have been thrilled to put pictures to words written by such wonderful authors as Jan Karon and Margaret Wise Brown. My first book as a writer and illustrator, Always Twins, was published by Holiday House in 2015. Other publishers include: Scholastic, Viking Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, Sterling Childrens Books, Sleeping Bear Press, Little Simon, and Down East Books.

I work in watercolor, colored pencil, and a little of whatever else happens to be on my desk at the time ... cat fur included.

I now live with my husband Chris Dahlen and our son Nicholas, as well as our cat Phinneas and several fish, who have all served as models at one point or another. We all fit in a blue house in lovely Portsmouth, New Hampshire.