Joy has loved drawing and creating stories ever since she was given chocolate as first prize for a 3rd grade art contest. Dark chocolate is often involved in her creative process to this day. With a BS in Illustration and Animation from San Jose State, Joy has worked in a variety of animation, art and design jobs but her favorite place to create is in children’s publishing. She usually scans her hand drawn illustrations and paints them digitally, or just goes for it and draws in the computer. Joy has illustrated many kid’s magazines, over a dozen board books, and her own author- illustrated picture book THE PECULIAR PIG with Nancy Paulsen Books-with her next book,

THE CUTEST BRAVE LITTLE BUNNY coming February 2024!

​

When not in her studio writing and illustrating, Joy can be found wrangling Monarch butterflies, fostering rescue dogs, eating her vegetables, singing “the hills are alive with the sound of music” while hiking the wild outdoors. She is a sympathetic crier, a lover not a fighter (unless absolutely necessary), and a practicing environmentalist. Joy is raising one particularly brilliant boy and a rescue pup named Olive, along with her hubby in the Bay Area.