Gayle Kabaker (gayle@gkabaker.com)

I'd wanted to be an illustrator ever since I was 11 years old -- inspired by my baby sitter, Martha Vaughn, whose fashion illustrations appeared regularly in the

Washington Post. I'd wait hungrily for the Fashion section each week, cut out her illustrations and pin them on my wall, fantasizing about the day when I could pin up my own illustrations cut from a newspaper. At 18, I went to The Academy of Art in San Francisco to become a fashion illustrator. I branched out into general illustration when I moved from San Francisco, following my new husband, Peter Kitchell, to the boonies of western Massachusetts where fashion is secondary to ... farming. Yes, you guessed it, the transition from city gal to country gal was not an easy one, but 20 years later, I am happily still here.

After 9/11, there were many changes in our industry. I decided the timing was perfect to take some time off from illustration to support my daughter, Sonya Kitchell, in her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. She has succeeded brilliantly, and at 18 has a team of people to run her business and to take care of her well. The time came for me to step back into my own business.

I began writing, thinking that my story of a mom navigating the music business with a teenager would interest people. I felt the need to document my unusual experience. This proved to be the start of a great adventure. I discovered that I LOVE to write. I put illustrations to my stories and brought all the creative juices together in one big pot. You can read some of my stories on the writing link. Writing gave me a whole new way to see the world. I was never the kind of artist who saw something and thought, I must go to my studio and paint that! Now I do see things and think, wow, I need to write about that.

A spray bottle perched alone on the dusty sill of a window in an old house in a fancy neighborhood near the ocean with a CONDEMNED sign on the door caught my eye. It made me imagine the family that had lived in that house and tried to clean it up to sell it, but for some reason gave up and now it had to be torn down. This new way of being creative was intoxicating. I spend hours writing, inspired by as little as a spray bottle.

It was time for me to reinvent a new illustration style. As I began to paint again in earnest, I remembered how much I love doing this! Collage became integral to my work. I painted patterns and scanned them into the computer, designing everything in Photoshop. It took me back to my pre-computer days when I collaged in cut paper. I love moving textures and patterns around. I made my agents a bit nervous with my experimenting. When coming up with a new style it's inevitable that there will be many wrong turns to get to the right place. I know there is no such thing as a 'wrong turn' creatively, it's all just part of the process, but I tried some crazy styles. Imagine if a folk singer decided to turn punk. Their agent might reconsider, thinking, "folk is my area of expertise, can I sell punk?" It took a while, but I finally came up with the style you see under illustration on my website. My wonderful agents, Pat Lindgren and Piper Smith, (www.lindgrensmith.com) hung in there with me, weathering all my twists and turns, and were ultimately thrilled with the result. There's nothing like having a good cheering section.

I am happy to work in any of my styles. My older work is now under the stock category. The name of the game these days is versatility. I'll do almost anything anyone pays me to do. I am, after all, a commercial artist. I've begun working with a poster company who is used to working with fine artists. I explained to them, "I am different, you see, I don't MIND when you tell me what colors to use." O.K., I'd hesitate over doing pro gun ads or a "smoking is good" campaign so please don't tempt me with big bucks for jobs like that. What I'd really like is for you to hire me to work on projects that change lives. I've enjoyed working on campaigns to promote awareness for domestic violence, as well as many different women's health issues. One of my craziest jobs was illustrating a book for Rodale Press called SEX: A Man's Guide. Think of all the men I personally helped with my 'how to' illustrations! Did they see my drawing and think, OH, so THAT'S how you do that? Plus, the art director was young and had a nice voice, and I imagined he was really cute. Each day we'd talk on the phone to go over all of the sex positions and how-to illustrations, and, well, lets just say, it was fun talking to him.

Don't worry, if your assignment isn't sexy or life changing, I am still into it. Call me.