I’ve been doing collage art since I was about nine. It started out as an art project for school—I’d always loved children’s books by Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, and Lois Ehlert, to name a few. So I tried to imitate their techniques, but it didn’t come out quite right. Dad helped me improve, though, and I started small, making Mother’s Day and birthday cards, then worked up to bigger pieces. I made mini-yearbooks for my friends, and even taught art in my parents’ classes a few times a year. We sometimes used discarded lobster, clam, and mussel shells and stones from the beach to make glued collages—a different type than I usually made, but it was still fun. My dad, Magic Marker Man, couldn’t have been more thrilled by my decision to pursue an art major. After Richard gave up liberal arts to become a stockbroker, Dad had been convinced he’d failed somewhere along the line. Now, sadly, I would apparently uphold the Templeton tradition of doing lots of work for no pay. But maybe it wouldn’t come to that.
