I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a small city in the southeast corner of the state. From the age of three I began drawing and coloring. Before entering kindergarten I won a coloring contest at the local elementary school summer program for which the prize was a red wagon.
(Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge and scroll through them.)

I have a brother Tom, 18 months older, who also has a talent and interest in drawing.
Tom was always a little ahead of me in technique but provided an incentive to improve.

From an early age I developed an interest in animals and often kept one or another as a pet. I kept hamsters, green anoles lizards, toads, frogs, snakes, baby rats, baby hares, iguanas, turtles, tortoises, canaries and tropical fish with varying degrees of success. My mother put up with it and even allowed a cat and a dog.

I also developed an interest in plants and became something of a naturalist. Other members of my family and a neighbor or two encouraged me in this area. In college I majored in biology. I never lost my interest in art through college. I even made money selling artwork at outdoor shows during the summer.
After college I decided to work on a portfolio and see if I could earn a living doing illustration. Eventually after many years an agent picked me up and I began to work in children's books. My first book was The First Tulips in Holland by Phyllis Krasilovsky for Doubleday published in 1982.

I really enjoy the process of illustrating a picture book. The words tell a story one way and the pictures add to it and tell stories of their own. My job is to interpret the text in pictures and make clear the intent of the author. But in every book there is the opportunity to represent in my pictures my slant on things. - SDS