aboutkyra

Kyra Teis

Imagining Stories

I have always loved stories, and I can't remember a time when I wasn't painting them.

My father, who was an artist, gave me all the paint and paper that I wanted. He taught me about colors, shapes and how to draw what I saw around me.

He knew that with practice, I would learn how to use the paint to tell stories of my own one day. He was right! When I grew up, I became a writer and an illustrator.

Bio: Kyra Teis, Children's Book Author & Illustrator

Kyra Teis began her artistic career while majoring in folklore as an undergraduate. Drawn to symbolic and mythological imagery, she studied folktales and other stories from many different cultures. During this time, she identified that writing and illustrating children's books would be a perfect way for her to combine many of the things she loved. While she went to graduate school, she worked to build a portfolio of artwork and started getting jobs as a professional illustrator.

Kyra has been surrounded by the arts all her life. She owes her love of costume to her mother whose first career was a costume designer for the theater. Kyra remembers playing in theater workshops with fancy wigs, fabric and colorful trim from a very young age.

She learned her distinctive paper collage technique from her father, Dan Teis, who was a contemporary artist. Her father's studio was always open to her, and she had unlimited access to paper, paint, and other art supplies. In high school, Kyra sat in on many of her father's classes that he taught while serving as Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at the University of Delaware.

Now, Kyra draws inspiration from her extensive travels, her husband and young daughter. She enjoys designing creative workshops for school visits and speaking to students about making stories and images of their own. Kyra lives near Albany, New York.