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For more than 20 years, Maryville College alumna Laurie Allen Klein has been making a living at what she loves -- drawing.

Currently living in St. Augustine, Fla., Klein works as the on-staff artist for the education department of Sea World Orlando where she has painted life-size murals of Florida animals and landscaping. She also does freelance graphic art, having recently completed several murals for two elementary schools.

The Philadelphia, Pa., native who was raised in St. Petersburg, Fla., remembers watching Saturday morning cartoons and Disney movies as a young child and sketching on random pieces of paper. By elementary school, she knew her career path -- book illustrator.

As a part of the College's Homecoming 2009 festivities, Klein will be reading and signing copies of "Little Skink's Tail," "Where Should Turtle Be?" and "If a Dolphin Were a Fish" at 10 a.m., today on the Pearsons Hall Lawn.

For more information about Homecoming, visit the college's Web site at www.maryvillecollege.edu.

A nurturing environment

Klein, who majored in art studio at MC and graduated in 1979, said that the liberal arts college prepared her for her career and life in the broadest sense by "simply giving (her) a rich and nurturing environment in which to experiment, meet people, grow and be independent."

Since she intended to draw her entire professional life, she decided to attend a college where she could meet people who were interested in other subjects.

"And as it turned out, my best friends were English, chemistry, history and political science majors (and still are), which helped to broaden my way of looking at things literally and figuratively," Klein explained. "In art, it really is all about looking at things, absorbing influences and atmosphere."

She fondly remembers drawing and painting classes in the old Fine Arts Center along with the lessons learned there. One professor assigned several sketching and eye-hand gesture drawing exercises for practice. Like many college students, she either didn't complete them or rushed through the exercises.

"I thought they were a waste of time and saw no point or benefit in the repetitive nature of the thing -- I wanted to just dive right in to a real picture and start drawing," recounted Klein. "However, I have found that the more drawing I do on a daily basis, the better and stronger my abilities."

Another professor offered advice that proved very useful over the years. While painting a still-life from memory in class, Klein was approached by her professor who suggested that she find the object she was painting and set it up so she could see how light and shadow played off the textures.

"He said that the human mind isn't nearly capable or creative enough to imagine all the intricacies in nature. We should always use a reference," recalled Klein. "I thought that I had an incredible imagination and was extremely creative. But he was right. My drawings were better, richer and more detailed when I started using reference materials."

A dream realized

After graduation, Klein secured a job as a paste-up and graphic artist for a slide production company in Atlanta, Ga., where her main responsibilities were cartooning and creating charts and graphs for slide-show presentations.

Eventually, she started doing freelance work that led to the opportunity to illustrate her first book, Out to Pasture, followed by three other books in that series. She recently went on to illustrate children's books, including "Little Skink's Tail," "Where Should Turtle Be?," "If a Dolphin Were a Fish" and "Fur and Feathers" (to be published in 2010).

"Whether illustrating children's picture stories, adult and young adult novels, magazine articles, activity books, field guides, camp brochures, greeting cards or promotional materials, I enjoy the process of bringing words to life," said Klein.