I’ve spent the past 30 years as a working artist, widely publishing comics, cartoons and graphic fiction in leading publications. But necessity has compelled me for many of these years to balance a very active artistic life with a fairly stressful, professional life by day. As such, Civitella offered me a tremendous break from the normal intensity of my routine, to spend a glorious uninterrupted string of weeks in a strikingly beautiful setting and surrounded by incredibly inspiring fellow artists and Civitella staff, in order to work on a number of comics projects that I will publish over the next year. I joyously divided my days working on a graphic novel I’m under contract for, a shorter work satirizing the catastrophe that is President Trump for an upcoming anthology, and daily outings early in the morning to sketch the intoxicating Umbrian landscape. It is an experience I am deeply grateful for:  A chance to grow as an artist while experiencing wonderful new things (impromptu late night concerts held by some of the composers in residence, electrifying poetry readings, egg tempera painting, swimming in Lake Trasimeno, Romana’s “Nonna Cake”, being introduced to the Madonna in Monterchi by our mutual friend Dana Prescott, being just a few of them) that I’ll never forget.