Most these posts have been about artists of a certain age, artists born around 1930, who have been awarded and have achieved a significant body of work. Ed Young, a Chinese-American born in 1931, is that kind of an illustrator. You will easily find his biography available on many sites; even more impressive to you might be a review of published books—almost 100 titles since his debut in 1962! The two in my collection are Birches (1988, watercolor gouache illustrations of a Robert Frost poem) and Tsunami! (2009, collage illustrations for the adaptation of a Japanese historical episode.)

Let me share in Ed Young’s own words, quoted in editor Anita Silvey’s Children’s Books and Their Creators, two insights that influenced his life of vocation. “(Coming to America to study in college) I took stock of myself and was surprised to find that all the years of drawing and playing were considered a waste of time in a world of measurable assets, of which I had none. . . . (His father’s advice to him when he was in his early 30s) A successful and happy life is one measured by how much you have accomplished for others and not one measured by how much you have done for yourself.” The first quote explains why he initially chose to study architecture, and the second explains why he left a successful career in advertising art to begin creating children’s picture books. I think his pivot from one ethic to the other shows how time and experience have a way of clarifying things about vocation