She spent her childhood doodling and painting at every opportunity. Relatives sent her pastel sets and pictures from across the country, and her summers were spent at the Westport River in southeastern Massachusetts, painting the birds, the water, and the sailboats. Her remaining lessons were accomplished via trial and error. Among her main artistic influences, she counts Michelangelo, Monet, and Cassatt, newer masters like O'Keefe and Hopper, the contemporary artist Janet Fish, and water color masters Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Andrew Wyeth. Doing a whole book is like a math problem, creating visions for the text that complement and enhance the whole-book experience.
Books also tend to be more accessible to the general public.
I used to make these hugely intricate Easter eggs using the Russian Pysanky tradition. I'd spend three to five hours on each egg, and make up a basket of 50 eggs. Then I'd give them all away, to colleagues, friends, family, and to complete and utter strangers. The opportunity to actually do so was unexpected and tremendously exciting. Margaret's interest in fantasy art began at the age of 15, when she first saw an illustration from Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun, West of the Moon on a postcard.