“On an overnight business trip to Cincinnati last May, I checked into my hotel with the intention of ordering room service and watching Law & Order reruns. But when I turned on the television, the on-demand movie channel featured the angry scowls of Swinton and Miller in the same trailer from 2010. I was uncertain about viewing it, especially since I didn’t have my art supplies with me. I made the decision to watch it first without illustrating; I’d wait until my Amazon shipment arrived for that. I sat down on the edge of the bed and pressed “buy.â€� I figured I’d order my food and change into more comfortable clothes as the movie began to play.

I never ordered any food and the film was over before I changed. Instead, I sat for two hours in the same spot on the bed, paralyzed, then shattered. The movie was all I could think about for days afterward. The story and the images were so disturbing that I began to think the only way to erase them from my imagination might be to get them down on paper.”