One of the
major characters in Crossing the Moss
Line is Bird, a young boy who is also a talented artist. My problem in
creating him was that I am NOT an artist. I don’t know how artists see or think
or feel or deal with the world.
So I turned to my friend
Richard Clark (E. Richard Clark) who is
an artist and he helped me bring Bird to life. Richard grew up in the south in
roughly the same time frame and circumstances as Bird. When he told me, “I
always knew that I could draw anything I could see,” I knew I had found my
inspiration.
Richard did not read Crossing the Moss Line until it was
published, but when he heard about this event he said, “I have a painting I did
some time ago and I think it’s what Bird looks like.”
And he was right. Meet
Bird.
There is probably a definition
for this kind of parallel creativity, but I prefer to think of it as magic.
