Maya Christina Gonzalez facts for kids

Maya Christina Gonzalez (born 1964) is an American artist, illustrator, educator, and publisher. She is known for her work that celebrates different identities and cultures, especially through children's books. Maya lives and works in San Francisco.

Gonzalez helped start a publishing house called Reflection Press. She also co-created an online learning space called School of the Free Mind. Maya has a unique and expressive personal style. Her art and work focus on helping people feel good about themselves and connect with others and the world around them. Her illustrations and books have helped more people accept and love children's books by and about Latino people. Her art is even on the cover of a textbook called Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education, Volume II. Maya Gonzalez teaches and leads workshops all over the United States.

Early Life and Inspiration

Maya Christina Gonzalez was born in Lancaster, California, in 1964. Her family was biracial; her mother was German, and her father was Mexican. Maya has one brother who is a year younger than her.

When Maya was seven, she had an accident that caused her to be in a coma for three days. After she got better, she found gifts waiting for her, including paper and colored pencils. This gift inspired her to start drawing. It showed her how art could help people heal. She also took classes at a local craft store to help her fully recover. For several years, Maya was very religious and used her family's Bible and the art of Michelangelo as inspiration for her drawings.

Moving to Oregon

At age thirteen, Maya and her family moved to a rural area in Oregon. Here, she experienced unfair treatment because of her background and identity. People sometimes called her "exotic."

Maya did not plan to become a professional artist at first. She had very little formal art training. She changed her mind after studying creative writing at the University of Oregon. She enjoyed poetry, but she felt that the writing programs focused too much on certain experiences. Maya decided that art was a more open and complex way for her to express herself. She found art easier to access than writing and liked that she could be less direct with her images. This is when she started painting.

Finding Her Artistic Path

Maya decided to move from Oregon to San Francisco after a difficult experience while living in a community. She felt she would be better able to follow her artistic dreams in San Francisco, where she still lives today. When she was 20, Maya shared more about her identity. This led to her becoming very involved with communities that support diverse identities.

After leaving school with only a few art classes, Maya explored creating her own art. At this time, she was interested in understanding reality and how it connects to creativity. She was influenced by the ideas of Jane Roberts. Harriet Rohmer, who started Children's Book Press, asked Maya if she would like to illustrate children's books. This led Maya to discover her passion for illustrating. She said it felt like she had "come home."

Health Challenges and Healing

In 1996, Maya had a serious accident involving chemicals during print-making. This made her very sick for three years and unwell for ten more. During her illness, she traveled outside the United States for the first time. She visited India, including the sacred city of Varanasi. She also went to Brazil to work with a traditional plant medicine. This plant medicine helped identify her illness as heavy metal poisoning in 2003. She then began to receive treatment.

After her health improved, Maya started creating more art. She also received a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. This grant helped her create a series called Healing Through. This series was finished and shown in 2008 and 2009. Around the same time, she wrote her first book, My Colors, My World.

Family and Publishing

Maya Gonzalez has two children and is married to Matthew, who is also a co-founder of Reflection Press. Reflection Press publishes children's books that are considered "radical and revolutionary." Maya believes that people with unique stories need to share them, and children need to hear them. She feels that big publishing houses often do not publish these kinds of books. Maya says that her home life is very much in line with her beliefs, even if it is different from what is considered typical by many.

Artistic Work and Themes

Maya Gonzalez's art shows people in non-traditional ways. She often includes people who are overweight and strong women. Her art often blends different ideas and cultures, showing figures that do not fit into just one category. Her portraits and self-portraits combine elements from Mexican history to redefine women. Her figures are often described as having beautiful curves. Maya's art also shows how individuals are connected to the environment.

Influences and Techniques

Gonzalez was influenced by the work of Frida Kahlo. She reinterprets Kahlo's life and art in her own creations. Maya uses many different techniques to make her art. These include acrylic paints, collage, cut paper, photography, pastels, and charcoal. Maya believes that creating art is a spiritual process. Her work often draws from different mythologies, like the Aztecs, and traditional spiritual symbols, like the Virgin of Guadalupe. Other inspirations include pop culture and her own imagination. Her paintings combine these inspirations to express her ideas using mixed images. For some time after her illness, Maya worked with a more limited range of colors.

Children's Book Illustrations

Maya Gonzalez was inspired to illustrate after meeting Harriet Rohmer, who founded Children's Book Press. She has illustrated over twenty books and written some of her own. Maya believes it is very important for children to see themselves in books. She wants children to know they belong by creating inclusive books. She aims to illustrate difficult situations and feelings for children so they feel less alone. Her illustrations for children include characters who are not often seen in books, such as characters who are gay or overweight. For illustrations in Francisco X. Alarcon's stories, Maya had to work hard to keep the image of an overweight boy who was meant to look like Alarcon himself. Maya also hides "secret" images in her illustrations. She hid her first secret image in her illustrations for Laughing Tomatoes. Her first book that she both wrote and illustrated was My Colors, My World.

Environmental Themes

Caring for the environment is an important part of Maya Gonzalez's work. She has been praised for helping young people become more aware of environmental issues. Her book I Know the River Loves Me/Yo Que El Rio Me Ama (2009) shows a Chicana girl visiting a river. As the girl explores, the sepia-toned illustrations slowly become more colorful. The book was called a "beautiful story." I Know the River Loves Me is about feeling connected to the world and having a relationship with nature. Maya feels that such connections with the environment are a very important part of the Chicano experience.

Exploring Identity in Books

Call Me Tree: Llámame árbol was described as "vibrantly hued" and a good choice for story time. It is also special because it uses gender-neutral language in the story. Call Me Tree was included in a respected list by Kirkus Reviews, "Best Children's Books of 2014." Her writing for Call Me Tree was also praised by Kirkus Reviews, which said that Gonzalez "excels at using few words to evoke grand imagery."

Maya Gonzalez also creates activity books. Many of these go along with the lessons from the School of the Free Mind. Her activity books cover topics that are not often discussed in schools or at home, such as understanding different ways people express their identity. The activity book Gender Now (2010) explores how there are "multiple levels of gender expression." It was also one of the first books for children to explore topics related to diverse gender identities.

Awards and Recognition

• 2009 Américas Book Award Commended Title (Animal Poems of the Iguazu).
• 2008 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book for Illustration (My Colors, My World).
• 2000 Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award (My Very Own Room).