My path towards illustration began in first grade math class. I spent hours fixated on my teacher's woolly cardigan, imagining the fibrous tufts into sublunary shapes: whale sharks, moon dust, neon octopus suckers. In retrospect, these early ventures into re-arranging reality serve to illuminate my clear decision to become an illustrator.I feel hugely grateful to my family and friends, as well as my tutors and colleagues from the BA Studio Art course at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and the MA Children's Book Illustration program at the Cambridge School of Art at ARU, who have helped me to become the person I am today (parrot squawks and all).www.courtneydicmas.wordpress.

com.