Early Childhood continued.....

Although I was born in New York City... I was never raised there. In fact, I feel rather foreign in New York City. It is not my home. I am a Californian in my soul. When I was six months old, our family moved to Corning, New York...a small city in the northern part of New York state. We lived in Corning until I was 8 years old. My father worked as a physicist at Corning Glass Works, which is a well know American company that produces glass. The entire town of Corning revolved around the Corning Glass Works in 1951. We visited the Corning Glass Museum regularly as children, watching glass blowers create beautiful glass vases and bowls.

Southern California is my home... because at age 8, my family moved to Newport Beach. We lived in a section called Corona del Mar, a beautiful little city on the ocean about an hour south of Los Angeles. In 1959, Newport Beach was a true paradise, with warm, dry weather, and not too many people. There was open land with groves of orange trees, palm trees and Eucolyptus trees, and sprawling beaches and a beautiful bay. Today, in the year 2000, the city of Newport Beach is like an extension of Los Angeles, with multiple freeways, smog, and lots and lots of traffic. So, as an adult, I chose to move south to San Diego. I live in a suburb of San Diego called La Jolla, which is a university town. It is quieter, with less people. We are only a half hour from the Mexican border. Salk Institute and UCSD are also in La Jolla. Moving to Southern California had a direct influence on the development of Sutton Movement Writing. In California I was influenced by Disney animation, Hollywood's theater and dance, and the free inventive spirit that is oftentimes connected with California. They say that there are a lot of inventors here. There is a feeling of openness and acceptance in the west that seems to be different than in the eastern United States. Maybe it is because the weather is less restrictive, which creates less restrictive thinking - who knows! SiliconValley is in Northern California, one of the birth places of the personal computer. You wouldn't believe how many inventors I have met in the supermarket (and most of them are web designers too- ha! ;-)

 

...more to come soon...