About

Inspired by Gustave Doré’s wood-engraved illustrations for Perrault’s Fairy Tales and La Fontaine’s Fables, the New York City vignettes of Hilary Knight and Ludwig Bemelmans, Beatrix Potter’s whimsical animals, the surreal tones of Tomi Ungerer, the haunting drawings of Unica Zürn, and the dreamlike watercolor worlds of Nicolas de Crécy’s graphic novels and Sylvain Chomet’s films—particularly The Triplets of Belleville—I have been drawing for as long as I can remember.

Born and raised in a Franco-American household in downtown New York, I first published my drawings at the age of five in the literary review Courants d’ombres. I refined my craft in life drawing, anatomy, painting, and printmaking at the Art Students League of New York, at Duke University, where I earned my B.A., and at New York University where I completed an M.A. in Museum Studies. 

My first book, Odd Birds & Fat Cats, a collaboration with my father—his words, my illustrations—was published by Turtle Point Press in 2024.

For several years, I have been the director of a prominent downtown New York gallery, where I have the privilege of working with extraordinary artists whose creative visions continue to shape my own. 

I am also the co-founder and illustrator of Zou and Lou, a New York-based cartoon duo.

Welcome to my world.

Aurélie Bernard Wortsman