The Daily Zoo: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day

Chris Ayers popped out onto this Planet Earth scene on a sweltering July afternoon in 1975. Shortly thereafter he discovered a groovy magic wand made of wood called a "pencil." Through trial and error, and lots of practice, he learned that these nifty little things gave him the means to unlock the worlds of his imagination and give them visual form on paper.

During these early formative years his spongy gray matter soaked up as much as it could about the fascinating world around him, especially in regards to the animal kingdom, dinosaurs, Sesame Street, Star Wars, Disney, art, mythology, monsters in closets, spaceships, Robin Hood, Ray Harryhausen, pirates, extra-terrestrial friends and foes, Jules Verne, Dr. Seuss, Bill Peet, comic book heroes and villains, animation, cartoons...

Fast-forward about twenty years to the spring of 2000. With his Toyota Tercel literally packed to the ceiling, he drove westward from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. He had long dreamt of someday working in the movies and, at age 24, it seemed like the right time in his life to give it a shot.

Fast forward another eight years and he is still driving a Toyota Tercel around the bustling freeways of the City of Angels. His dream of working in the film industry has come true - and then some. Working as a character designer and concept artist he has been involved in some challenging and fun projects such as Men In Black II, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk and The Santa Clause 2.

In 2006, on the one-year anniversary of his diagnosis, he started a sketchbook called The Daily Zoo and set out to draw one animal each day for a year. His hope, in addition to being challenging and fun, was that it would help his healing process and give him a focused opportunity to appreciate the gift of each healthy day.