I was granted a rare interview with famous artist, Toby, inside his New York studio in SoHo. Toby insists he didn’t seek fame. “I need to create,” he says. “Painting is my way of communicating.” I ask Toby about the bold colors that he scratches into canvas. “My behaviorist encourages me to work through issues in my art,” he says. “Right now I’m challenging the whole 9-lives thing. What if we only have 6 lives? Would you still jump from a tree to a rooftop?”

Toby believes that creativity is critical to learning. He established “Common Claws,” an organization to fund art classes for inner city kitties.