Greg is primarily a landscape painter and Professor of Art at Dickinson State University.  Since becoming a grandfather, the focus of his creative work has moved to children’s book illustration.

This project is an illustrated ABC book, using alliteration to reinforce the sound of each letter, under the principle that “repetition is the mother of learning.”  “The illustrations are done in watercolor and colored pencil on paper.  I came up with this concept when my own children were still quite small and learning their letters, however, I never seemed to have the time to flesh it out properly.  I began making sketches in earnest about 2 or 3 winters ago, but just got around to doing the actual illustrations around February of last year.

Artist and Author Note: 

The purpose of this book is to bring adults and children together, to enjoy time with each other, building a love of reading and learning.

Technology has brought us m any wonderful opportunities, but it can have a lasting negative effect on people who rely too heavily on it at the expense of personal relationships with their children. This book is one way to give readers the opportunity to unplug the screen and spend quality time with children by reading an entertaining and educational book. Doing this will forge lasting personal bonds and will show their kids that they are important, too important to ignore by utilizing the distraction of technology.

The vocabulary in the text is almost certainly above that of children learning their ABCs. The book was designed with this in mind; to engage in a much deeper way than a simple story would. Explain to your children what the words mean. Have fun diving into a world of interesting new words expanding your child’s horizon and love of books.

Finally, the illustrations themselves were all done by hand using watercolor pains and colored pencils. I hope that children and readers alike will find these much more interesting, imaginative, and enjoyable than the AI-generated images which have become the norm today. It is my hope that after reading my book, kids of all ages will develop a love of words and be inspired to their own creativity.