Facing a blank piece of paper gives me anxiety because I don’t know if I’ll be able to fill it with a design, but picking up a pencil and watching a design flow out soothes my heart. I don’t think it’s magic and I don’t think it’s natural talent — I believe it’s years of paying attention and filling my head with beauty, and gradually I become confident and sure when I pick up that pencil. 

I read Tom T. Hall’s book about songwriting; he was working at a radio station where he had a filthy little office and that’s where he wrote songs. He went on vacation one time and they remodeled his office, and it took him months to write again because everything was all wrong. I feel that way about my workbench. I can’t draw unless I have the correct pencil and the poster board I like and I’m sitting at my bench.