Lily's art, by Maria Darcey, is dedicated to the memory of her mother Lily, and in honor of her father Benjamin. Each lily flower on the logo represents each parent.

My name is Maria, I have been drawing since age 4. When my parents gave me an Etch a Sketch, I figured out if I moved the knobs simultaneously I could actually create curves rather than just straight lines. This allowed me to create more pictures. The problem of course was, that I would wear out the device after a couple of week's usage. My father was a truck driver, and he began to notice that every time he went to use his pens for filling out paper work for his deliveries, that all the ink was gone. He figured out that I would take them and use them to draw, so finally, my mother and father went out and bought me my first technical pens.

I've come a long way from the Etch a Sketch, and currently use a combination of pencil, technical/graphic pen and prism markers to create my colorful illustrations. Drawing was what I loved to do and still do. I tell my friends that I love drawing from my imagination because imagination is endless and one can go on forever. The sky is the limit when one uses their imagination.

My biggest childhood influences or mentor artists were Charles Wilson Anderson, who illustrated such wonderful books as "Blaze and the Forest Fire," and Dr. Seuss. I love the realism C.W. Anderson put in his beautiful equine illustrations, but I also love the colorful characters Dr. Seuss created.

Well, after toiling at the age of about 9 who I wanted to imitate, I decided to combine both styles. Throughout the years, I have developed what I think is my own style. Most of my characters are inspired by people I know and their personalities, plus the personalities I've seen in many of the animals I have owned, or met in the past.

Presently a good example of animal personalities is the big draft horse I draw with a spotted blanket named Rocky. This character is patterned after a willful draft horse that lived next door to me when I was a kid. This was a horse who would get stubborn about being forced to do some exercise. Every time I would try and lunge Whiskey, or ride him, he would stop and stand still, and then he would begin to rock from side to side as if he were going to keel over! Needless to say, Whiskey scared me witless, so he would get out of exercising for the day, which I am sure made him very happy! Although the horse I draw has had his name changed from the real "Whiskey" to the cartoon character "Rocky", the physical characteristics of the horse remain the same, which are very big feet, a huge pot belly and a dopey looking expression.

Of course Rocky could not make it alone in this world without a friend, I also developed his pal Clyde (patterned after my childhood pet rooster named "Leo") Clyde tries to keep Rocky out of trouble. Oh yes, and Clyde is well educated in Shakespeare, which he idolizes! I am currently writing and illustrating a book about the story of Rocky and Clyde and hope one day to publish it. It is my dream that kids will one day fall in love with these characters and illustrations much the same way I did with those of CW Andersons & Dr. Seuss . I hope you enjoy my drawings.