This body of work features a recurring cast of fantastical characters inspired in part by many of my favorite artists and illustrators such as Maurice Sendak and Remedios Varo. The Waiting Land is a short picture book that shows these characters stranded on a mysterious island. They wait for the arrival of a passenger ship that they hope will save them. It is inspired in part by my grandmother who in 1941 escaped the Nazis by boarding the SS Nyassa from Lisbon to Havana, Cuba along with 400 other refugees.