Sometimes my youthful memories play a role in the choice of my subjects. Bunnies and jackrabbits were often seen in American comic strips and cartoon movies. After World War II, we got a lot of them in Europe. Walt Disney's wonderful movie, "Bambi," impressed me deeply as a young boy. It made me very conscious of animals in the wild, especially small mammals. The young ones more so than the adults seem to come directly out of such a movie. Their behavior is just as it is shown in Disney's movie.

It is no wonder as a wildlife painter that I now fall back on those memories. I never will tire of painting cottontails, jackrabbits and squirrels, especially the young ones as their behavior is so similar to that of small children. They seem to talk to each other just as children do. I wonder what they have to tell each other.

- Carl Brenders