Marilyn Pride is a well known in Australian Science Fiction society for her natural history and fantasy illustrations. Her style can be traced back to her childhood when she wrote and illustrated stories about sea serpents, bunyips and dinosaurs. Even then, she was careful to detail not only how they looked, but also how they lived. It was probably this interest that led her to study anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney. However, despite her qualifications, Marilyn never got to practice.

 

As she recalls:

 

"I had retreated from drawing and painting whilst I was at University. When I discovered the Uni' Science Fiction Club, I began doing black and white drawings for their 'zine 'TELMAR". This encouraged me to develop my color paintings, which I painted on boards, T-shirts and smooth river stones. My painted stones became popular at science fiction conventions, which led to my first professional book cover".

 

Apart from numerous fantasy book covers, she has written and illustrated two non-fiction books, "Australian Dinosaurs and Their Relatives" and "More Australian Dinosaurs". Marilyn has won the Australian Science Fiction "Ditmar" award for Best Artist four times. "Australian Dinosaurs and Their Relatives" also won the Crichton Award for Best First Book. With her partner, Lewis Morley, she has also worked on several Australian Films including: "Razorback", "Howling 3", "Dark City" and several TV commercials. The current production she is working on is "The Matrix" 2 &3, at the Fox Studios in Sydney. Marilyn has lived for several years in her dream house ­ a grass roofed cottage called 'Totoro' (after the Japanese anime wood spirit) situated in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, NSW.

 

What is Marilyn's work environment like?

 

"I have a studio with large north and east-facing windows with red glass corners. I look out onto my garden, my frog pond and bushland. Lewis handmade all my workbenches, drawers and bookshelves from pine. My walls are lined with hundreds of books, magazines and my tin-toy animals. My collection of Japanese Godzillas look down from the top shelves. Glass bubbles hang from my ceiling and colourful rugs cover the tiled floor. The windowsills are covered with animal skulls and toy dinosaurs. On the walls, printer's trays hold coloured threads, tiny glass jars, shells and my die-cast lead farm-yard animals. A very creative atomosphere."

 

Marilyn can be reached at:

60 Martin Place
Linden NSW 2778

AUSTRALIA

Telephone/Fax: (61) 02-4753-1166
Mobile: 0401-254-279

 

Email: LewispandMarilyn@aol.com