Written in 2010.

“I’m a person (not a dinosaur, in case you were wondering) that doodles dinosaurs on a regular basis, so I thought, ‘What the czech?’ I can scribble things and talk about other things, totally doable. So I’m a doin it.”

Natasha Alterici, who began her blog in April 2010 with this declaration, is a 23-year-old artist with a striking fascination for dinosaurs. With great ease, she is able to combine her talent for art with the simple joy that prehistoric creatures bring her. Her blog, which is titled “Candysaurus” and features the tagline “weekly randomness sprinkled with 200 million year old magic,” provides a great representation of the creative person she is.

“The goal has been to document my progression as an artist and also as a human being,” Alterici said. “What I am trying to do with the blog is to try to make people think about what it is that they believe. And then random drawings of dinosaurs. Gotta break it up once in awhile.”

That is essentially what she does in life, as well. When not sketching dinosaurs or working at a library information desk, Alterici creates dramatic, captivating artwork. Sometimes, however, these two passions collide, as they did recently with her vivid oil painting of an Archaeopteryx, a small prehistoric bird.

In an effort to make some money with her artwork, Alterici said she spent much of September creating dinosaur-themed items to sell at the Family Arts Festival in Bartlesville, Okla., on Oct. 9.

“We’ll be selling our wares and flashing our talent like mammaries at Mardi Gras. I’m gonna be selling dino figurines, paintings, prints, and a mini-educational sassy dinosaur book I’ve been working on. It’ll be crazy good times,” Alterici said on her blog.

When the day of the festival arrived, she set up her colorful booth inside the art-filled tent. Her Archaeopteryx rested on an easel next to the table; books, magnets and sculptures were placed upon a cardboard city she created using shoeboxes and festive paper; and key chains hung over the city on a dowel rod “T”.

Alterici’s mother, Patty Sawyer, and her brother, Randall Sawyer, both drove long distances to support her at the festival.

“I just thought the display she built and the way she presented everything was very professional,” Patty Sawyer said. “If there was a crowd there, I think she would have sold everything. I really thought she was going to sell out.”

After Alterici finished setting up and greeting everybody who came to see her, she commenced sketching dinosaurs using her favorite medium: pencil and paper.

“It’s quick; it’s immediate gratification for the urge to draw,” Alterici said.

Her love for art and dinosaurs is not a recent development. She said she has been drawing since she could hold a pencil and decided to be an artist while attending Northeastern State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a graphic design minor.

Her other passion has been cultivated over numerous viewings of “Jurassic Park” and through what she has learned about dinosaurs. Her mother said that Alterici has been drawing dinosaurs since she was a little kid. She said a scene from “Jurassic Park” is one of the first things she remembers Alterici drawing.

“I always liked dinosaurs growing up. After watching “Jurassic Park” at such a young age—very influential—I remember very early on telling people I wanted to be Steven Spielberg. I wanted to make dinosaur movies,” Alterici said.

“The older I got, the more I learned about the movie making process, and the part that really excited me was the design process creating those creatures. It just blows my mind that there was this whole other world that existed on the same planet that we are on now. Nobody knows exactly what they looked, so you can constantly put your creativity into it. At the same time it’s science, so it’s research and study, and you can still get it wrong.”

Alterici said her favorite part of art is the research and finding new influences. She said she wants to learn everything she possibly can. Her inspirations to draw—books she has read, politics and new science discoveries—reflect this desire.

“I think my style is pretty much always evolving,” Alterici said. “The more artists I study, the more they influence me, the more I want to change my own style to reflect what I see a little bit better.”

She said one of her biggest supporters has been her junior high art teacher, Dottie Allison, who came to her senior art show in college.

“She impressed me when I went to see her exhibit when she graduated from college,” Allison said. “I was just really impressed with her creativity. She had a lot of different styles.”

Alterici said that exhibit had been a major learning experience for her, developing professional skills and the ability to display her work in a flattering way.

Allison said she remembers that Alterici always worked hard to get her art the way she wanted it. She said that even though she was not very close to Alterici, she could still see that she was her own person. Alterici’s mother noticed this quality as well.

“She’s always been herself no matter who’s around. She is just herself,” Sawyer said. “She’s Natasha.”

It could be easy for people to forget that Alterici is a professionally trained artist if they only read her blog, which she fills with dozens of dinosaur drawings and stick figure sketches. However, she does periodically remind followers of her immense talent. She does this, for example, in her posts that feature expressive drawings of herself as a spy, which she fancies herself to be.

“You may now bow before the one and only real spy you will ever know,” Alterici said in her blog. “That’s right, yours truly got a chance to do some real espionage today. Allow me to recount the tale…”

Since she began her blog, she has used drawings to illustrate her various anecdotes, rants, and general musings. She turned adversaries into comedy by creating dinosaur representations of them. The people who inspired the Creepasaurus, Gabbymimus and Starealoticus probably have no idea what they have become. However, the creatures do have one blog fan clamoring for a ‘saurus’ name of his own.

Alterici will participate in another craft fair that will take place at NSU from Nov. 12 to 14 and plans to experiment with new series of paintings that she describes as “harder edge.” She also wants to work on the graphic novel she wrote several years ago.

“I really would like to be a graphic novelist,” Alterici said. “I’d like to write stories and illustrate them and publish them and have that be my full-time job.”

Alterici is progressing as an artist and is persistently developing her skills, and she will always have the outlet of her blog and dinosaurs to enjoy. Her enthusiasm to learn and ability to simply have fun with her talent are qualities other artists should strive for.

“Draw what you love and always, always, always be trying to improve. You can’t just settle and say this is good enough. That’s not what art is about to me.”