Seitu Hayden, Chicago Member Since July 2008 Artist Statement As a young person I was introduced by my mother to Richard Green, a cartoonist who went by the pen name "Grass Green". From that moment I knew I wanted to do art for a living. I have been a professional commercial illustrator my whole career. I have drawn countless storyboards for ad agencies and art studios. I have also created finished illustrations for magazines, record albums and newspaper print ads. In the early ninties I penciled and inked two graphic novels for Epic comics ( a division of Marvel). They were called "The Temporary Natives" and "Bloodlines". Both featured full color stories of Cathy Grant, a Peace Corps worker in the Central African Republic. I had previously illustrated stories about Cathy for the independent publisher Slave Labor in a comic called "Tales From the Heart" with Cindy Goff and Raphael Nieves the writers. My art influences are diverse. I'm a fan of the work of Jack Kirby, Rex Perry, Pedro Bell, Gil Kane, Dan De Carlo, Thomas Blackshear, Haddon Sundblom,Turtel Onli, and of course Grass Green!