Biography
Kathy Poague was born in Maryland and has lived in many places around the world. A realist at heart, however she is always looking for magickal ways to expand her art. She works with oils, watercolors, and acrylic. Kathy seeks the beauty that is sitting right around her. She relocated to Salida CO six years ago, and at that time, her art took an interesting twist, and the Whimsy Doodle artwork came to life. Shanna-Khe the Dragon extends her artistic pursuits into the realm of now being a writer and illustrator.
About the book, By KD Poague
My Whimsys are an interesting phenomenon: They are a combination of watercolors and ink. They begin upside down and then turn right sight up. So their creation has been quite unusual for me.
My first experience with them was creating greeting cards. They just created themselves. I was just doodling and next thing I know, little critters began showing up. I was just as surprised as you might be. But there they were and all I needed to do was add a little ink, and Voila’ – Whimsy Doodles everywhere. I have a series of 50 different cards that are available with Celtic names to describe them.
As art would have it, you want to take what you have created, and grow it to a new level. So I decided I would illustrate a book. I had no intention of writing it – I knew AnnaBeth could write something, so off I went creating these pages of whimsy. And the images began doing all sorts of things, and this showed up and that showed up, and now a Dragon and my pup Snickelfritz was in almost all of them. To my surprise, I created some pretty interesting pages of Whimsys. I knew some of the creatures that came alive, and they were very active and would leave impressions on me. However, I was still convinced that AnnaBeth would write the text.
I showed AnnaBeth the pages and told her my idea, and she would not have it and said “You can write this Aunt Kathy, I will come up and we will just talk about these illustrations and see what comes.”
Well who knew? Not me! In my whole life I never thought I should write a book. AnnaBeth is amazing we would talk and look, and the next thing you know, the pages had been written, and critters named, and stories were coming out of me, and names never heard before came throught, and AnnaBeth would research words. We were off and running and a book with words, not just illustrations, came to be. I want you to know I am just as surprised at this as you might be. Our AnnaBeth is truly amazing and can get you on the right highway, and next thing you know you have created something you never imagined. I thank her and truly believe it was a collaboration of the whimsy kind to make this happen.
The Book Growers 