Flutter celebrates a child’s imagination, one that is open to anything and everything. He came about when I was putting my son to bed, well over twenty years ago. On his floor, near the bed, was a yellow sticky post-it note with a pencil drawing he had done that day at school. I picked it up and said, “Oh, look at your beautiful butterfly.” He replied, “Well, actually, it’s a bird.” He was in the habit of using the word ‘actually.’

Right away, I was angry with myself for assuming I knew what the drawing was, and that I commented incorrectly. I should have asked him to tell me about it first. The last thing I wanted was to stifle his creativity, or make him self-conscious of anything he produces. I didn’t let him know I was upset with myself, but while continuing to put him to bed, the complete text of MY FRIEND FLUTTER ran through my mind like a gift. When he was asleep, I wrote down the words, then put them away.

Years later, I thought of Flutter and wanted to create a children’s book. As an artist, I had a hard time figuring out how best to illustrate this book, and made at least three attempts using pastels, marker, and even oil paints (I completed the series in oil on large format archival paper.) Nothing seemed right, so again, I set it aside.

Later, thinking about Flutter, I edited the text, adding birds as characters for Flutter to interact with, and most importantly, Little Bird, the friend who always has Flutter’s back. We all need friends such as him. Again, I set it aside.

During a trip to Vermont, I was inspired to paint a series of birds on the pages of old books. At the time, I didn’t realize I was painting Flutter’s friends. Then it dawned on me that the best was to illustrate Flutter’s world was a combination of realism and the abstract. Because although he lives in a real world, Flutter is able to see what others seem to miss, the abstract. With the magic of Photoshop, these images came together nicely. By the way, my son, who is now an adult, gave me permission to use the image he created as inspiration for this series. I have his full support.

Although the subject of this first book seems very appropriate today, knowing who you are and having the confidence to accept yourself is a timeless, desirable human attribute. (Remember, I wrote this over twenty years ago.) The other books in the series also have a timeless subject matter because as humans, our basic wants, hopes, dreams, and desires never really change. The thing that can change, is how we view our world.

I hope you love Flutter as much as I do! Enjoy!