path to the present

as a young child . . .I was awed by Garth Williams’ art.

as a young teen . . .
Maurice Sendak now was king of PB’s, brilliantly changing boundaries.
I read WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE to a toddler 11 consecutive readings on demand. I knew he reached kids and I hoped to do so with my own books one day.

as a young adult . . .
By 17, my parents were both deceased and I was thrust into the world to figure out my path.

I managed to get into Parsons School of Design.
Though I often lacked enough money for even a slice, learning directly
from Sendak fulfilled a small dream. He believed I had something important to share. Now I just had to figure out how to meld my writing with art.

onward the road was scrabbled and winding . . .
Teaching and attending school, parenting, work & creativity most often shifting like dance partners.


~ Always returning to creating stories with pictures.

learning by default . . .
years of teaching: [Special Ed, Art, ESL] 
– struggles to find freedom outside of and within my hours in schools,
to stay true to my creative soul.

I often defied administrators – shared picture books in MG classes to inspire, teach, shift minds and hearts.

In elementary,
I created  illustrated readers for my SpEd students.

Teaching expanded my learning.
Diversity of minds, learning styles, lives, cultures, egos,
digging to find strategies to reach past challenges in multitudes of ways,

©bonnie lambourn / fireUrchin ~ 2023