Nature Inspires Art and a Novel

  

Cheryl Zemke was six months old when her parents started taking her on family camping trips to William Hayes State Park in Irish Hills, Michigan once a year. As she grew up, the camping trips became an opportunity for her to do what most teenagers want to do, get some space from her parents. She’d take those moments away from the tents and explore the area which eventually led her to grow a love of nature.

Along with her love of nature, Zemke loved art. She won art awards as early in her youth as first grade and always tried to work in creative fields. Growing up she admired the artwork of Pablo Picasso and still considers Andy Warhol an influence and artist who was ahead of his time.

Zemke found a way to marry both her passions when she wrote her first book, Defenders of Naturion, published by Publish America on April 6, 2009.

Camping Trip Inspires Book

Naturally Zemke’s love of camping and nature led her to start her own family tradition of camping. She lives close enough to the state park to go more than once a year and it was one of those camping trips with her son that led to the creation of her book.

She brought a sketch book for her son to draw what he saw and it didn’t take them long before they started drawing characters from twigs, rocks and leaves. The creatures are the nature inhabitants and they started thinking of stories to put them in.

It’s like if you went to the woods and everything came to life and not everyone can see them,” Zemke said.

Zemke wasn’t someone who dreamed of being a writer, so the fact that an entire novel poured out of her was surprising. She did the cover art and 22 character drawings. Only 15 made it into the book. She hopes that her book might inspire others to see the beauty in nature.

“It’s incredible what God has provided us,” Zemke said. “You can look at something in nature and see how incredible it is.”

Zemke’s Community Involvement

While Zemke was getting her hair done and talking about her book to her hairstylist, a teacher overheard her talking about her book and invited her to speak at Maybury School for Career Day.

“When I asked if any of the students wanted to be writers not one of them raised their hands,” Zemke said. “By the end of my discussion, some of the students wanted to be writers.”

The incident had an impact on Zemke and a realization that she is unique as a published author in that it wasn’t her life long dream. But she understands she serves as an inspiration to others and she and her family have always been involved in thier community.

“We’re green people,” Zemke said.

They recycle, try to be earth friendly and use the canvas bags provided by stores. Her son, who helped her edit the book and who the book is dedicated too has started an environmental club at his school and volunteers at the Toledo Zoo.

With her art, her book, her family, and her other creative projects, she’s very busy but has still made time to sell items related to her book and has three writing projects she’s working on.

For more information on Cheryl or her artwork, her website also features a new character every month.

Source: Cheryl Zemke was interviewed for this article via telephone on July 7, 2009.