top of page

ABOUT 

​

EDUCATION

I graduated from Northwestern University where I studied art history and studio art. For ten years, I ran a visual literacy program in a K-5 school. I still feel passionately about helping children look critically and verbalize their questions about what they see. My art history foundation and these experiences have had a profound effect on my work. 

In the studio, I have studied with Ed Paschke, Phillip Chen, and Audrey Niffenegger.  I also took a class with art critic Dennis Adrian that marked me for life. 

 

WORK

My work is mixed media--including watercolor, pen and ink, pencil, and digital.

​

INFLUENCES

My daughter was born in Switzerland and through our weekly visits to the local library, I became interested in the way traditions of storytelling and illustration differ from country to country. In 2014, I fulfilled a long-held wish, when I had the opportunity to attended the Bologna Children's Book Fair to present a software I'd helped develop. 

Illustrators whose works inspire me:

Edward Gorey, Peter Sis, Shaun Tan,

Sydney Smith, Sophie Blackall, Corinna Luyken, Isabelle Arsenault, Michael Sowa, Elzbieta, and Benjamin Chaud, among many others.  

​

​

In 2014 with Merripen Press

 MEMBER

My first commission on my 3rd Grade teacher's car.

society of illustrators.jpg
DarcyZoells_8.7.23_by_ElliotMandel-3.jpg
bottom of page