Bartek "Arobal" Kociemba never thought he'd grow up to be an artist. As he tells it, he had no real talent for drawing and his interests lay rather in politics and social sciences. As a boy he grew up in the town of Barlinek, a quaint town set in the middle of a wood that he describes as "magical" and "spooky". The woods were filled with the sorts of animals and plants - moose, rabbits, deer, poison hemlock and sumac - that years later began to creep back into his world through his illustrations.