path to the present

as a young child . . I felt awe viewing Garth Williams’ illustrations from Golden Books to novels.

as a young teen . . .
Maurice Sendak was king of PB’s, brilliantly changing boundaries.
I babysat a lot ( buying my own clothes at 11) and read WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE to a toddler 11 consecutive times one day. . . reinforcing my desire to create picture books.

as a young adult . . .
By 17, my parents were both deceased.
Somehow, I got into Parsons School of Design.
Often I lacked money for even a slice,
but my dream of learning from Sendak came true for a bit. He told me to stay true to my visions.

onward the road was scrabbled and winding . . .
Teaching, more studies, parenting, work & creativity interspersed & intertwined.

I taught public school:
K-8 Special Ed, ESL & ART
As a teacher, I passionately strove to meet the needs of my diverse students. This meant defying administrators at times by using picture books in higher grades to increase visual literacy and to teach basic reading, writing, art, inform about science, history, cultures, and the way art both reflects and shapes our world.

With materials often lacking in underfunded schools, I also created simple illustrated readers to support phonics learning for my students in Special Education classes.

Teaching expanded my problem solving skills, digging to find strategies to reach past challenges
in multitudes of ways – to meet the diversity of languages, abilities, learning styles, cultures,
also emotions and even middle school egos.





fireUrchin – a name acquired by facilitating ecstatic, exploratory & transformational dances –

source: fire urchin: bioluminescent sea urchin with glowing light from within . . . lives close to the ocean floor . . . in a symbiotic partnering offers protection and rides to fellow sea creatures – lobsters, crabs, small fish, octopus.

• Deep emotional explorations may transform into light making.
  The inner light is there to be lit..