MARYANN KOVALSKI

BIOGRAPHY I BOOKS I PRESENTATIONS I BOOK ORDERING

Maryann Kovalski was born in New York City on June 4, 1951. When she was young, she once got in trouble for spending so much time at the library, pouring over books. Her three brothers told her that was the danger of reading!

Without quite knowing what an illustrator was, Maryann knew she wanted to be an illustrator when she grew up. In high school, she began developing her drawing skills by copying pictures. After graduation, she went to the New York School of Visual Arts and when she completed her education, she began looking for work in Canada. She fell in love, got married, and she and her husband moved to Toronto, where she did her first book for children for Kids Can Press.

When Maryann needs inspiration for writing or drawing she goes out on the street for a walk. When she finds her inspiration she rushes to her studio and it goes from her head to her hands and ends up on the paper. She claims she can do illustrations for six hours straight, but she has problems with writing. When getting her books checked by the editor, she uses the 'three times rule,' adding that 'if a person makes a criticism three times, something must be wrong.' But, like many other authors she says, 'It's hard for me to agree with the editors.'

These days, Maryann lives in New York City and walks New York City streets looking for inspiration. Walking and looking, she says, are very important in helping her through tough revisions.

IN HER OWN WORDS

I was born lucky. Lucky to have come to parents who had three boys and had just about given up hope of ever having a girl. I was lucky to have been born in the Bronx at a time when kids roamed freely through the streets all day long. But maybe most of all, I was luckiest to have the skyline of Manhattan to stare at while I hung upside down on the jungle gym in the playground. Sometimes I'd sit on a bench by myself and just stare at it. For me it was like the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz.

My brothers say they don't remember me. I guess that's because when I wasn't staring into space or dawdling, I was at the library across the street from the Civil War cemetery with a book across my lap. I just had to crack open a picture book, smell it and I was gone. My favorite was Babar. I don't think I'd ever even heard of France but that place and the Old Lady's elegant house and balcony completely captivated me. As did any book that had drawings of far away places.

If I wasn't staring at books or daydreaming, I was drawing. I wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I wanted to be other things as well. For years I wanted to be a nun. I think I wanted to be a nun because I would have liked to boss kids around and wear the long skirts that nuns wore then. I wanted to swish up and down the aisles between rows of desks like Sister William did when we sang out our multiplication tables.

I suspect most kids take things in literally and I was no exception. I once saw an illustration of 'what you can be.' One of the occupations illustrated was that of an artist. He wore a beret and a smock with a bow. I didn't like that uniform very much but thought that was an artist's uniform and much like a firefighter's or a police officer's, it came with the job. But I thought that as a nun I would look ridiculous with a beret on top of my habit, so that's when I believe I lost my vocation.

Like everyone, I grew up and so did my love of art. When I graduated from St. Barnabas High School, I went to the School of Visual Arts. Soon after graduating from SVA, I moved to Montreal which looked to me very much like the pictures in the Babar books. I also lived in Toronto and have traveled to many faraway places. Now I live in New York City again. I dawdle and daydream and gaze at picture books. The best thing is that now I draw them as well.