Illustrating your Own Story! Becoming an AuthorArtist - Part 5 with Maya Gonzalez

Play takes you all the way!!!
Once upon a time…

There was a woman. She had scissors, some heavy paper, color pencils, an ink pen and a glue stick.


She glued two pieces of paper together and opened her mind and heart to see what might join her! Her eyes widened as her paper filled with a tall friend, a small friend, a jump friend and more!

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She made sure they had color and books in their hands. Then cut them out and gave them something a little extra so they could stand up on their own!

Happy, the woman began playing. The tall one with the small one. The jump one and the super one stand on their own, then the cake with the cupcake one. It was pure play. Play Play Play. This! then That! Up then Down! Here now There!


Then the visions started coming. Outer space adventures, deep sea mermaids and ships. Bears and jaguars. Birds and babies.

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The woman longed to make more play things. Find more stories! And so it was that she was a children’s book maker.


She allways remembered…

to make books that children can enter and find themselves…

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 one must enter first and play, play, play.

Big blessings on ALL your play! May you play your way right into making a great big book!

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Maya Gonzalez is largely self-taught. She has illustrated over 20 award-winning multicultural children’s books and written 3 with, not an end in sight! Her latest book, Call Me Tree, set to come out this year with Lee&Low Books, is her most recent labor of love! Her fine art has shown internationally and appears in numerous books about the contemporary Chicano Art Movement including on the cover of Living Chicana Theory and Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture and Education considered to be "the Bible of Chicano/a art." Ridiculously creative, she’s probably making art as you read this or thinking about making art if she’s driving a car or using the stove. And one of her ultimate passions is inspiring others to create books, because she believes that creating children's books has the potential to be one of the most radical things you can do!

If you'd like to know more about Maya, you can visit her children's book website, her fine art website, or learn more about her work inspiring others to join her in changing the world at www.schoolofthefreemind.com or www.reflectionpress.com.