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PUBLISHED WORKS: Snow Princess (2005) |
ABOUT ME:
I grew up in Arlington, Mass. and went to Matignon High School in Cambridge. Despite anxious warnings from the Sisters of Saint Joseph involving my immortal soul, Sigmund Freud, a licentious environment and a bleak future, I applied to the Massachusetts College of Art. The protests of the good nuns notwithstanding, by some miracle I was accepted. Fast forward. Eight years, three children and one divorce later - I returned to Massart to get a teacher’s certification. The city of Haverhill hired me within a week of my course completion and I spent the next thirty years teaching art at Haverhill High School. My approach to teaching was simple. I believed that inside even the most wayward child, lived a five year old who wanted his work on the refrigerator. I wanted to make that happen. It turned out – we needed a really big refrigerator! (Loved those Haverhill kids!) During twenty of those teaching years I also worked as a freelance illustrator. (Three children approaching college in quick succession will force your hand.) The arrival of my first grandchild set the wheels in motion for this last stage of my career. Those first few years of watching my son as a parent triggered the five year old in me. Having been raised without one, I just didn’t understand fathers. What was their role? What was the nature of the bond? One day I was holding my grandson on the balcony of their high rise while waiting for my son to emerge on the ground. When he appeared, my grandson turned to me and revealed a part of the answer. “Nana,” he said, “my daddy can cross the street alone.” I have seven grandchildren now and many more questions. Each one of them opens an unexpected door into my own memories of childhood. I’m just waiting for the revelations… |
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