Ann Chaikin (Mama Monkey)

Lessee-- born in Pasadena California in 1943. Lived from six weeks to two years of age at Los Alamos, New Mexico during the "war years" while her father helped create the atomic bomb. There the radiation did its work turning Mama Monkey from a normal human baby to her current ape-like shape and habbit. During most of her life, Mama Monkey had an almost uncontrollable urge to draw. Naturally life managed to thwart this urge for years and years during which Mama Monkey completed school and received a degree in English Literature - the preferred degree for young monkeys during the 1960s. Mama Monkey began her work life as a substitute teacher of small children but soon gained her senses and got a job as a computer programmer. In those days no particular knowledge was required, so she felt this career would work just fine for her. Meanwhile she married a human and gave birth to the most wonderful monkey known to mankind, in fact the world-renowned money now known as Monkey Prime. He was a challange to raise being highly creative and strong-willed. Mama Monkey spent a number of years growing organic vegetables, baking whole-grain bread and generally living the life of a hippy monkey. Then she went back to work and spent far too many years of her life at IBM doing all kinds of weird things for money. Her only artistic outlet was to create works in stained glass. Years passed. Monkey Prime grew. Mama Monkey changed partners in there somewhere to a new semi-human grizzled ape who became her constant companion. She then moved from sunny California to rainy Washington, got a new job at a college, and finally was able to devote some time to her long-lost love, art. The result you see before you. It is just the beginning of a long and fertile life of creating art of all kinds, generally having a high old time fulfilling that age-old urge to draw.