Q: What are some of your favorite things about living and working in San Francisco?

A: I’m from NYC but currently living in San Francisco. A great thing about San Francisco is that it’s pretty quiet (boring), so it’s easier to stay in and work than it is in NYC. Frankly, I will always be a New Yorker!

Q: How and when did you first become interested in art and illustration?

A: I was in school and suddenly realized I’d have to earn a living. I couldn’t spell, add, or type, and I definitely didn’t intend to become a housewife; but I could draw.

Q: Do you keep a sketchbook? What is the balance between the art you create on paper versus In the computer?

A: I have kept a sketch book from time to time. I must go back to doing that again! Still, I have thousands of works from various life-drawing classes and they have become a big source of my illustration finals—after being put through art-directed modifications via Photoshop.

I’m always going back and forth between paper and computer. Photoshop is such a great tool. 

Q: What do you like best about your workspace?

A: It’s in my home and I get to see my husband, Ward Schumaker, throughout the day.

Q: Do you think it needs improvement, if so, what would you change?

A: I wish the floors were more messed up, I feel the need to protect them and it inhibits my true messy nature.

Q: What is the most important item in your studio?

A: Sun Light

Q: What is your favorite part of the creative process?

A: Actually getting down and doing the work  

Q: What was the strangest or most unusual assignment you’ve taken? What made it a success or a failure?

A: I was asked by The Yolla Bolly Press to illustrate a limited edition book.  It was to be printed letterpress and my work didn’t fit that. So my husband helped me learn to do overlays with Photoshop…and that changed my world.

Q: What was your favorite book as a child?

A: I have always loved Grimms' Fairy tales. Even now, on cold nights I crawl in to bed and read them. So creepy! But my very favorite was a German book, “Struwwelpeter,” by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann.

Q: What is the best book you’ve recently read?

A: "This One Summer" by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. It’s a wonderful story and Jillian is an amazing artist. Each page is a delight to look at and I’m always wondering how on earth she can draw like that, she’s brilliant.

Q: What was your first professional assignment and how did you get it?

A: I was showing my portfolio to an art director at the New York Times and another AD saw me and asked if i was an illustrator and could do an illustration, right then and there. I had 2 hours and worked in the bullpen with the AD and editor taking turns standing over my shoulder making suggestions. My hands shook the entire time!

Q: What was the last art exhibition you saw and what did you take away from it?
A: It’s not the last exhibit I saw; it’s the next one: we’re flying to Manhattan to see the Sigmar Polke show at MoMA. His work (which veers in a multitude of directions) truly excites me.

Q: What is/would be your karaoke song—and why?

A: "I’m a Lumberjack," by Monty Python. It always makes me laugh!

Q: What is your hobby?

A: Working in the garden

Q: What would be your last supper?

A: Pasta, of course!

Vivienne Flesher has created books and covers for Farrar Straus & Giroux, Penguin, Random House, Harvard, and the Yolla Bolly Press. She has illustrated for The Kennedy Center, American Express, Elle France, The NYTimes, Martha Stewart Living; and her drawings have graced stamps for the US Postal Service,and posters for the Arena Stage. Tumbler.