A dark.... terrible..... secret....

Actually, that's a dirty lie. The man's an open book. And he recently "sat down" with Terri Hodges for a little Q&A.

The question that everyone wants to know, how did you become a Lucasfilm-approved artist?
I have to thank Mary Franklin and Steve Sansweet for this major coup. Over the years I had created some Star Wars art and posted on TheForce.net, ArtWanted.com, RebelScum.com and other such fan sites. From there the Star Wars NYC Fan Club contracted me to create a fun New York themed piece. On a whim, I sent it in to Bantha Tracks (Fan Club section of Star Wars Insider) and within a day Mary responded saying that she LOVED the piece and would run it in a future issue. A few weeks later she contacted me again to let me know she had passed my name on to Topps as a potential sketch card artist. We all know how these 'referrals' go, so I wasn't really going to hold my breath -- then, ten minutes later, Matt at Topps emails me, and since I was referred to him by Mary and Steve, I was already Lucasfilm approved!

Where do you hail from? How did you end up where you are?
I was born in California but grew up in Campbell, New York -- a very small upstate town that consists of more bovine than humans. Not wanting to milk cows for the rest of my life, I ran as far away as possible as soon as I graduated high school. (I think this is why Star Wars resonated so much for me as a kid -- the longing for adventure and escape out of the mundane.)

Tell me about your family. Do you have siblings? Are you married, single or otherwise? Kids? Pets?
One brother and one sister. I am married to Trish (this will be our tenth year!) and we have two incredibly energetic and crazy hell-spawns: Skylar and Benjamyn.

Is anyone else in your family artistic in any way?
My daughter can already draw rings around me and she's only 6!!

Check out the complete Artist Spotlight Interview with Jeff Chandler over at Artists-Allied.com