Michelle Maiden

Michelle Maiden grew up in Queens, New York in a creative and ethnically diverse household, her mother a Japanese artist and her father a Jewish American poet.  They had lots of weird and wonderful pets roaming around the house throughout her childhood, including raccoons, ferrets and a skunk.  Many of her memories of these creatures are depicted in her work. 
 
Michelle has been drawing since childhood and has taken various art courses throughout her life, including at Cornell University in New York. In recent years she has focused primarily on children's book illustration and has studied this at Cambridge Anglia Ruskin University, City Lit in London, and in Guildford. When not at her desk, she enjoys trawling charity shops for bargains, Scrabble and eating handfuls of peanut M&Ms.
 
Michelle's illustrations have appeared in educational books for children and in various publications, including Harvard Business Review and Personal Investor.