Disaster envy

I moved away from Northridge, California, 14 months before it the Big One hit in 1994. I was already jumbled and at odds with my new life, and now my old life had been shaken to the core. Buildings on the Cal State University campus where I had spent many years studying and teaching were destroyed. I lived in Boulder at the time, and none of my new acquaintances could care less about what, to them, was just another California quake.

I suffered from disaster envy, wanting to share in the spontaneous community rebuilding efforts. Friends from back home assured me I was nuts, and that being caught in a major quake was not something to envy. The editor of Sage Woman magazine was familiar with my prints and requested an illustration to go with this essay. I dived into the assignment. Digesting the experience helped make it slightly less abstract, but I've never been good at illustrating fierceness. I was trained in animation drawing by Kenneth Walker, a key Disney animator. As you can see, even my portrait of the dark and terrifying Mother is suffering from terminal cuteness.