Q: Originally from Denver, what are some of your favorite things about living and working there?

A: I am a Denver native, I left town just long enough for a BFA and then moved back. Denver's got a great creative community, really wonderful museums and galleries and nice weather. Until fairly recently the cost of living was ok, it's been creeping up and reasonable artist space (all space) is getting tougher to find, as Denver's growing like mad.

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

I don't keep a sketchbook. I try and try but it doesn't stick. I do a good deal of drawing most days for assignments and paintings. I draw on paper and then scan, I have a Wacom tablet that I use to continue refining the roughs. All finals are hand built and then married in Photoshop.

Q: What do you like best about your workspace?

A: I have a studio in a complex that houses 20 other studios. My neighbors to one side are woodworkers and metal fabricators. I've got painters on the other side and we all surround a big garden. Everyone's does their own thing and it's neat to be able to look up from a drawing table and see the metal guys welding a giant sculpture.

 
Spread from The Iridescence of Birds, published October 2014 by Roaring Brook Press.

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

A: Maybe a little less grinding and dust from my wood and metal studio-mates, but then that would be any fun.

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

1) dog

2) computer

3) view

4) tools

5) tea pot

6) tequila

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

A: That part when you got the job but you haven't started it yet...there’s nothing but potential. Then the research and drawing part is fun. Executing the work is terrifying, every time I start something I feel like I'm new. Almost everything I have ever finished—published or painted—I want to go back in and change.

Q: What was your favorite book as a child?

A: I LOVED The Point, the album by Nilsson, and the illustrated booklet that went with it. I still look at the design and incredible drawings by Gary Lund. Here's a blog I found with great scans of the pages, just amazing.

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

A: I'm in the middle of Mrs. Dalloway and am embarrassed it's taken me this long to get around to it.

Q: If you had to choose one medium to work in for an entire year, eliminating all others, what medium would you choose?

A: I'd use printmaking paints and techniques.

Right: Spot for the Boston Globe Book Review, "The Sea Inside." 

Q:What are some of your favorite places/books/blogs/websites for inspiration?

A: For images, It's fun to look at pinterest- to see things curated by people—but it's also a great place for research. Currently my favorite pinner is Aaron Smith.  
The New York Public Library digital collection. 
To be a better person:  http://www.brainpickings.org/
To learn about children's lit: http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/

For a perfect marriage of word and image, Nautilus Magazine: 
For music mix-tapes made by strangers for strangers: 
http://8tracks.com/

Q: What was the painting or drawing or film that most affected your approach to art? [the Tunderbolt]

A: In 1983 I was attending Kansas City Art Institute and studying painting and illustration and trying to figure out what to do with the two. I remember standing in line at the QuikTrip and seeing Matt Mahurin's cover on Time Magazine, the topic was domestic violence. Seeing this very dark, painterly image broadened how I thought of both illustration and painting and where the two might meet.

Q: If you could be anywhere but where you are now, where would that be?

A: I'll take a time machine to 1979 to tell myself to not lay in the sun, or at least to use sunscreen. Other than that, I'm good.

Q: What advice would you give a young artist about applying to an art school or college?

A: I'm not involved with academia and I'm almost 30 years out of school so I'm not sure what good advice I have. I just heard Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith speak, at one point in the discussion they said something to the effect of, 'If you don't have to be an artist, find something else to do. If you do have to be an artist, work your ass off." When I was looking for the Time Magazine cover that I mentioned above I went to Matt Mahurin's website... go now! It will answer questions you didn't know you had.

Q: What would be your last supper?

A: Breads, cakes, pastas, cookies, crackers and some french fries. And a good red wine.

3 Monsters, acrylic on paper.

Hadley Hooper is an illustrator and painter. She has had weekly columns in both the New York Times and the Washington Post, has created multiple book covers and advertising campaigns and has recently illustrated her second picture book, The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan for Roaring Brook Press.  Her work has been honored by American Illustration, Communication Arts, and is a silver medal winner from the Society of Illustrators. She lives in Denver with Hugh Graham and Maddie the dog. Her illustration work is represented by MarlenaAgency.com