Born in post-war Germany and primarily raised on a southeastern Ontario farm, Maia went on to study languages and education. Her first teaching contract was through CUSO (Canadian University Services Overseas); it was a meaningful, eye-opening, three-year experience at a Catholic mission school in the African country of Chad. This was followed by a “normal” teaching career in her home province. Then stay-at-home motherhood brought dramatic changes to her life.
The years of raising her three boys opened the doors to hitherto untapped depths of creativity. Earlier dabbling in arts and crafts, both self-directed and through night school courses, crystallized in a fresh new expression. With her fascination for fairy tales, love of the woodlands, and concern for the environment, her path led her to the development of the Forest Friends, and eventually to a business, Down-To-Earth Creations.
Maia’s art pieces — moments from the lives of the Forest Friends — reflect personal values and life-affirming insights while displaying a close connection to nature and sensitivity to the environment. They are, as her motto states, from the earth and the heart.
Writing has become an increasingly important sideline. Maia’s self-published books
include craft manuals, two novelettes about the Forest Friends, a cookbook (focused on the use of Maia’s salted herbs), various shorter works, and Wild Things for the Soul: Connecting with Nature to Balance our Lives.
Maia is grateful to call home a place where doors and windows open to meadows and fields, and where well-trodden pathways lead into the woodlands.